ail FlNDr iii!iiiii'i.;;;i!', '",!li' !l i II !p iiil ■"'''"11111" iHiiiii iiiili ' ip I iiiti iiiiiii PIJIP "i li . I II jiff if fllli ! llill! '"'"ill iliii ! Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.archive.org/details/educationofwomenOOcannricli The Education of the Women of India A Parsi Girl The Education of the Women of India By MINNA G. COWAN, M.A. (t.c.d.) Girton College ILLUSTRATED Fleming H. Revell Company New York Chicago Toronto V t^ c Preface It has been well said that no Western should attempt to make any general statement about inscrutable India ; the most he can venture to say is, that " in certain places certain things which he saw may possibly have been what he thought they really were." The present volume is therefore based upon appearances which may or may not have represented reality, upon con- versations with Government officials, missionaries and Indian friends, who kindly gave of their leisure to a stranger, and upon the study of Government Reports. Where any generalization has been made, the writer trusts it will be taken with the reservations which a very brief residence in the East renders needful. If the book help the women of the West to realize how critical is the present evolutionary period in the educa- tion of the women of India, especially in its 5 267331 6 Preface relation to constructive Christianity, it will not have failed of its purpose. My thanks are specially due to Miss Richardson and Miss M'Dougall of Westfield College for aid in revision, to many friends for their unstinted help, and to the Faculty of Advocates for the use of their Library. M. G. C. Edinburgh, July 1912. the G. A. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction . . . . . 13 II. Historical Survey .... 29 III. Burma 60 IV. Eastern Bengal and Assam ... 78 V. Bengal 100 VI. Interesting Institutions in the United Provinces and the Punjab . . 129 VII. Sidelights on some Native States . 146 VIII. Bombay 160 IX. University Education . . . .192 X. The Religious Element in Education . 223 XI. Conclusion 244 Bibliography 253 Index 254 9 Illustrations A Parsi Girl Frontispiece OPPOSITE PAGE Government Examination of Girls, Calcutta . 52 Girls at St Luke's Mission, Toungoo, Burma . 62 Ghurka Girl Boarder at S.P.G. Girls' School, Mandalay 68 A Hill School, E£Lstern Bengal ... 80 High School Class, Eastern Bengal ... 90 Four Scholarship Girls. United Free Church Mission School for Hindus, Calcutta . . 120 Standards I. to IV. United Free Church Mission School for Hindus, Calcutta . . .126 The Isabella Thobum College, Lucknow . . 136 C.M.S. Middle School, Amritsar — ^Hoop Drill . 142 The Alphabet Class, Nasirabad . . .156 The University Settlement Students' Hostel, Bombay ...... 208 Ludhiana School of Medicine — Hospital Court Yard with Patients . . . . .216 10 Statistical Tables TABLE CHAP. I'AGB I. Management of Girls' Schools. All India II. 48 II. Classification by Race or Creed. All India II. 49 III. Management of Girls' Schools. Burma III. 65 IV. Classification by Race or Creed. Burma III. 70 V. Comparative Figures. Bengal . IV. 107 VI. Management of Girls' Schools. Bengal . . . . V. 108 VII. Management of Girls' Schools. United Provinces . . . VI. 132 VIII. Management of Girls' Schools. Bombay .... VIII. 168 IX. Classification by Race or Creed. Bombay . . . . VIII. 169 X. Diagram of University Courses . IX. 204 XI. Classification of College Students . IX. 197 II 12 Statistical Tables APPENDIX PAGE A. Matriculation Course .... 250 B. Teachers' Certificates . . . .251 C. Growth of Female Education in India 252 INTRODUCTION " That is true knowledge which can make Us mortals saintlike, holy, pure. The strange thirst of the spirit slake And strengthen suffering to endure." TORU DUTT. TO write a book on the education of Indian women is a prosaic action impelled by Western devotion to matter of fact ; it would be more fitting to write of the veil of mystic romance which has hidden the sorrows and the joys of Indian women from the world ; of the Rajput women who issued from the royal zenana to lead a forlorn cause against their country's foes, or passed by hundreds to a fiery death rather than touch the conqueror's hand ; of those whose intrigue and strategy were redeemed from false- ness by underlying devotion to others, of those who rose above the symbols of ritual and worship to the true perception of the Divine in life. But the modem world of the East has its own romance, that of the meeting of diverse civihzations, of 13 14 Education of Women of India the craving for truth and reahty, of multitudes in the valley of decision. The old chivalry is there in a new form. It is not a little thing to open the door of self-realization, with its opportunity for an even greater selflessness, to the myriads of Indian women. The new thought and new ideals which are permeating the whole East have no more striking phase than their manifesta- tion in the life of women. The tentative attitude towards growing freedom, the hesitation to enter in and possess, the recurring tragedy of those who are ahead of their times, and of others for whom the new wine is too strong, • are only partial aspects of a problem which cuts deep into modem civilization. The women who live behind the veil in India, or who, though without, are utterly untouched by modern education and modern ideas, are still the vast majority, and there is in no sense a Feminist movement such as exists in Japan and to a certain extent in China ; still, the new type is there, the pioneer in a transitional period and the fruit of modern education. A Mohammedan lady of good social standing in Bombay keeps a school for poor girls in her own house, and has completely given up parda ; Brahma Samaj ^ ladies are doing excellent work on Government Education Committees ; an orthodox Hindu lady goes on tour to advocate a special system of Hindu schools ; an Arya 1 An Indian Theistic sect eclectic in character, founded by Raja Rammohan Roy in Calcutta, 1828. Cp, New Ideas in India — John Morrison, D.D. Introduction 15 Samaj 2 widow staffs a school for high caste girls in her own house with entirely voluntary teachers. An excellent Ladies' Magazine is edited by an Indian woman graduate in Madras. A Parsi woman holds the position of Legal Adviser for parda- nashin^ women to the Government of Bengal. Indian women are found doing excellent work as doctors, and a few as principals of girls' schools. It would be easy to multiply examples not only of those who have taken up definite professional hfe, but also of others who share in the work and interests of their husbands as closely as any woman of the West, and who use their social influence on the side of progress ; the Maharani of Baroda has written a book to interpret to her more secluded countrywomen the many phases of the Englishwoman's Hfe ; the Begum of Bhopal, on her return from the Coronation, summoned the Ladies' Club of her capital to exhort them once more on the never-failing theme of education as the root of all progress ; the Rani of Gondal and many other Indian princesses take a personal interest in the welfare of their people. The same phase is also to be seen in other ranks ; we find the orthodox Hindu wife of an Indian Deputy Commissioner accompanying him on tour through his district, rather than that he should live the 2 Or Vedic Theistic Association, a patriotic and religious sect, chiefly in the United Provinces and the Punjab. Founded in 1875 by Dyanand Saraswati. Cp. as above. Women who remain behind the curtain. 1 6 Education of Women of India greater part of his life apart from her.* Then there are the transitional tj^es, women who venture thus far and tremble on the brink of many complicated problems ; the wives of " England-returned " men, whose anglicized husbands have done their best to educate them, and by leading them painfully through the new ideas to bring them, to some extent at least, into the " reformed life." ^ There is much that is pathetic here, and the tragedy of " The Broken Road," has its counterpart to-day in the heart of many an Indian girl, who knows that the husband who is studying in Britain will, when he returns, have entered a new world in which she can never share. And so by many stages one passes back to the old, the real, India, where the woman graduates in suffering, and where the babies seem to grow, with no stage of girlhood, into little women on whom the burden of life falls heavily. Yet who can say whether the influence of these '* secluded ones " is not even yet the most potent factor in modern India ? The ** advanced ones " have their corporate life, and one of the most interesting features in India to-day is the number of women's societies which are springing up, partly in conjunction with European ladies and partly by entirely spontaneous effort. The traveller accustomed to read of secluded Indian ladies would be surprised ^ Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots — Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser, K.C.S.I. 6 Between the Twilights — Cornelia Sorabji. Introduction 17 to visit the Princess Mary Victoria Gymkhana in Bombay and meet Parsi, Mohammedan and Hindu women playing croquet and Badminton, or having tea with their friends, and even enter- taining men of their acquaintance twice a year. It is true that Parsi influence marks off the social life of Bombay from that of more conservative India, but the Bombay women do not always remain in Bombay. Some of the societies are linked with the various religious movements, others are purely social and educational. One society, the Bharat Stri Mahamandal, in the United Provinces and in Bengal, has been founded by Hindu and Moslem women, but is intended to include all sympathizers. Its aim is ** to form a common centre for all women thinkers and co-workers of every race, creed, class, and party in India to associate themselves together for the progress of humanity." ^ Another, the Gujerati Stri Mandal, in Bombay, is a purely Hindu society, which aims at bringing many of the Gujerati women, who keep par da, into contact with other women, and has a definite if somewhat ambitious educational programme. The Seva Sadan, or Sisters Ministrant, a society established in Bombay in 1909, with four branches, is under a united committee of Hindu, Moham- medan, and Parsi representatives, and aims at philanthropic and educational work. " In the name of Him, Who has given us so many bene- ^ Women in the Modern National Movements of the East (S.C.M. Pamphlet), by A. de Selincourt. B 1 8 Education of Women of India dictions, we call upon every woman to become a Benediction, and we call upon all who realize that India's two great sins are her sin against women and her sin against the depressed, to help us in creating Sisters Ministrant." ' The vow which these Sisters Ministrant are called upon to take, is to *' look upon life as a sacred trust for loving, self-sacrificing service, and to do such service. So help me God." It is true that when the high idealism of this pro- spectus and report are compared with actual fact, there is evident a certain lack of reality, character- istic of many Indian schemes. Still, good work, not unlike that of a London Settlement, is being actually done by two splendid women at the society's Settlement in Bombay, and idealism never fails of its ultimate fruit. No account of the corporate life of Indian women would be complete without mention of the National Indian Association, which, though organized from London, has many Indian ladies as secretaries or committee members of its Ladies' Branches in India. Amongst its many activities one of the most effective has been the holding of parda lectures and other gatherings for the encouragement of education, and scholarships are also awarded through it to suitable candidates. Apart from all organization, the farda party, pure and simple, whether given by the wives of Government officials, or by private individuals, has its own part to play. The honour of holding Seva Sadan Report. Introduction 19 the first of these, as a species of feminine durbar, belongs probably to Lady Amherst.^ At the request of the famous Baiza Pai, wife of the Maharaj of Scindhia, she received a deputation of Maratha ladies at Agra in 1827, ^^^ the account translated from a Persian letter by one of the guests reveals the quaint misconception of all things Western under which the deputation laboured. The number of Lord Amherst's sup- posed wives, the English " nautch girls/' who played the table with the ivory teeth, the strange attitude of the English ladies, reveal a world far apart, and though the modern parda party may not be needed to-day to dispel such extreme delusions, it is still a meeting ground for worlds far apart, and the source of many new ideas to both English and Indian ladies. These gatherings and societies have an extraordinary influence especially on those who have fought shy of the proffered friendship of the missionaries, or of Government educational effort, and they certainly count for much in the breaking down of artificial barriers to progress. The " secluded ones " of the real India have no corporate life and belong to no society save that of the family. The unit of Indian civilization is the family, and where that word includes the joint- family to remote degrees, one may perhaps faintly understand what the corporate influence of the women of the household means, and measure it against the impotence of a mere society. ^ Ruler of India Series — Lord Amherst. 20 Education of Women of India Such in all its variety is the diverse life of the women of India to-day, the meeting-place of two civilizations, and fraught with untold consequences and influences for the future. Hitherto the weight of woman's opinion has been conservative and religious. '' A combination of enforced ignorance and overdone religion have not only made women in India willing victims of customs unjust and hurtful in the highest degree, but it has also made them the most formidable because the most effec- tive opponents of all change or innovation." ^ But signs have not been wanting to show that this same influence has been inflammatory of revolu- tion and sedition, and instances are given, by a recent writer, of ladies' meetings in which sympathy was extended even to anarchists who had been guilty of murder, and in which ladies gathered together in zenanas were urged to do all they could to advance a mischievous pro- paganda.i^ True, this kind of influence is not widespread, but it is a natural result when im- pressionable characters are brought into contact with ideas which they have not the knowledge nor opportunity of weighing aright. There is the farther risk of recoil from enforced restraint towards the liberty which is not a law unto itself. The slavish imitation of the West which has marred much of the modern movement in the ^ Speech at the Education Congress, 1897 — G- K. Gokhale. 1^ Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots — Sir A. H. L. Fraser, K.C.S.I. Introduction 21 past and from which the Swadeshi of to-day is a reaction, is -even more repellent in the life of women than of men, and the Indian world would lose much of its fascination and charm if instead of a rehabilitation of the ancient ideals of woman- hood the modern type were to develop merely as a denationalized caricature. The classic Indian ideal of womanhood, with its wonderful vicarious suffering, its selflessness and devotion, is enough to make the world weep, yet it may be that it has proved throughout the centuries one of the subtlest temptations to the strong. "It is a terrible thing," writes Sister Nivedita, who made the Hindu woman's life her own ; "it dwarfs the wife. I often think that it would be good for the husbands themselves if their wives were less soft and good." But the glory and the grace of it may live, and its gentle womanhness trans- figure modern life. The Indian woman need lose none of those qualities which made her loved in Vedic times, but may prove to the world that she is conscious of her own heritage and capable of choosing only what is good from the life of the West. History is made quietly, and the modern movement for the education of the women of India and its guidance along right lines is a matter of Imperial importance. On education of some sort they will insist. The latest Quin- quennial Report (1907) shows an increase in the period of over 45 per cent, of the total number of girls at school, and since then some districts show 22 Education of Women of India even more.^^ The emphasis at present laid on girls' schools is in part the result of the general educational ferment in India. One hundred years have elapsed since Lord Minto wrote his famous letter to the Directors of the East India Company, animadverting on the decay of Hindu and Mohammedan science and learning ; this letter was followed two years later by the decision to spend a lac of rupees anually for educational purposes, a paltry sum in comparison with the Government's educational outlay to-day, yet representing the inauguration of a new policy. The great principles of the systematic introduction of Western learning, with the English language as a medium of instruction in the higher stages ; of the possession of English education as the criterion for Government service ; of the direct responsibility of the State for secular instruction only, together with the encouragement of voluntary effort on other lines by a policy of grants-in-aid, have borne fruit far beyond the imagination of those who laid them down in the early half of last century. A vast system has grown up : five Universities with magnificent Government and missionary colleges, a network of Primary and Secondary schools both in British territory and the Native States, an Educational Depart- ment in every province under a Director of PubHc Instruction, centralized till recently under a Director-General, an expenditure in 1907 of public funds amounting to 559 lacs, and, " Cp. Diagram, Appendix C. Introduction 23 along with all this, to-day, a grave criticism, representing various shades of political and religious opinion, of the work done, with a questioning of its beneficial influence and of the fundamental principles involved. Good results there certainly have been, but there is a tendency to-day to emphasize the weak points in the system rather than to lay stress on the actual good done, as always happens in a world bent on reform. The main points of the indictment brought against the system by current journalism are briefly these : an educated minority has been created, while only 28.7 per cent, of the present generation of boys are at school ; the ranks of the lower Government services are overcrowded, and disappointed candidates turn only too readily to sedition ; the Code tends to an abnormal development of the repetitive faculty ; intellect is emphasized at the expense of character ; the whole tendency is to take away from the Indian child his own historical heritage of thought and feeling. The Government is now devoting careful attention to the whole problem in its relation to the general political situation. In January 191 1, a new Central Department of Education was formed, with a representative on the Govemor-Generars Council. Under its auspices a special Conference of the higher educa- tional officials and others was recently held at Allahabad to discuss outlines of future policy, with special emphasis on the burning topics of Primary education and moral teaching. Lord 24 Education of Women of India Hardinge personally visited incognito some of the students' " Messes " ^^ {^ Calcutta to see the facts with his own eyes. The boon granted at the Durbar includes an additional expenditure of fifty lacs of rupees for educational purposes. Apart from Government there is an expression in Indian circles of the sense of crisis, and of the need for the extension of popular education. Though doubtless engineered by a minority, still it is not without value. The Indian National Congress and the All-Indian Moslem League have passed resolutions in favour of compulsory Primary education which show some sense of what education really means. '* Its universal diffusion is a matter of primary importance, for literacy is better than illiteracy ; education is something more than the mere capacity to read and write. It means a keener enjoyment of life and a more refined standard of living. It means the greater moral and economic efficiency of the individual." In March 191 1, Mr Gokhale intro- duced his Bill for Compulsory Primary Education to the Governor-GeneraFs Council, and thereby awakened discussion throughout the country. Idealistic it certainly is, when the dearth of trained teachers is considered and the conser- vatism of the real India taken into account, but it marks the trend of a certain section of Indian opinion. There is, moreover, a movement on the part of others for the establishment of Mohammedan and Hindu Universities, as a 12 Lodgings. Introduction 25 reaction from the secularism of the Government institutions. It is not the purpose of this book to analyse such criticism but merely to show its relation to the problem of women's education. To some thinkers the most fundamental flaw in the whole system has seemed the development of one-half of the community far beyond that of the other. In spite of recent progress the literate percentage is 10.50 for men, and only 10.4 for women ; ^^ the removal of this discrepancy might mean the raising of the whole of social life and go far towards the solution of other problems. Hence in every district there are ardent advocates of female education. " A realization of the necessity for an educated and emancipated womanhood is now no longer confined to those sections of the community which are directly influenced by Christianity, but is laying hold of Eastern nations as a whole." i* Hardly a Congress or debating society exists which does not pass resolutions thereon, hardly an Indian journal which does not emphasize the importance of the feminine factor. " Upon the condition of women depends the happiness and prosperity of the homes. Upon their fitness will hinge the evolution of our character. The schools and universities may make us highly intellectual, but as for character ^' 191 1 Census Returns. In igoi, 9.8 per cent, men, 0.07 per cent, women. ^^ Women in the Modern National Movements of the East (S.C.M. Pamphlet, 191 2), A. de Selincourt. 26 Education of Women of India we must look to the home and the home alone. Let us frankly say to the Indian girl : ' Here, child of God, take this key to the portals of know- ledge : it belongs to you by right of birth. Enter then fearlessly and behold the beauty and the joys it reveals.' "^^ There is nothing more striking than the emphasis which is laid in these articles on the sanction found in the Vedic classics for the education of women and on the modern movement as a renaissance, and not an overthrow of ancient Aryan ideas. The Mohammedan case is a more difficult one to prove, but there are writers, such as Ameer Ali, strongly influenced by the Christian ideas of the West, who attempt it in spite of the Koran.^^ There is the even bolder spirit of those who hold that '* though all the sacred mantras ^^ were against it," the education of her women is the only solution of India's problem. The slow infiltration of the Christian ideal of woman has had its effect and the influence of missionary educational work has gained an increased momentum by the change in the Indian attitude. True, the conservative influence is still there with much of the old strength, as will be indicated in succeeding chapters, not only amongst the orthodox but amongst the more advanced. An Indian Reform Journal can still ^^ Vedic Quarterly, 191 1. ^^ Koran Sura IV. (Rod well's edition, Sura, C). ^"^ A secret phrase or password used for initiation into Hindu sects. Cp. Primer of Hinduism — J. N. Farquhar (C.L.S.). Introduction 27 publish an advertisement of an undergraduate who desires a wife of eleven years, educated in Hindi and domestic matters. Such are the strange anomalies and contradictions of a country which defies generalizations. There is, however, abundant evidence to show that we have arrived at a highly critical period, in which the whole may be sacrificed to a part, in which, through lack of considering the question in all its bearings, the mistakes from which the education of men in India has not been wholly free may be repeated and intensified in the case of the women, and in which the opportunity of developing a national system in line with modern educational science may be lost. The present volume is an attempt to sift this evidence in the different localities visited, and to give, in so far as is possible to a writer who has no expert knowledge of Indian problems, an accurate description of the conditions of girls' education, and of the three contributing factors, the Government, the missionary, and spontaneous Indian effort. Where other localities have been treated the intention has been to show that the same factors and, to a certain extent, the same problems prevail. The survey is in no sense exhaustive ; the State of Bhopal, which doubtless presents many interesting features, is not included. The great districts of South India and the Madras Presidency, where women's education is well developed, have unfortimately had to be omitted, and any generalization made must be taken with r 28 Education of Women of India this reserve. The geographical division has been adopted, not because the same problems do not to a certain extent repeat themselves but because of the varying environment in which they are cast through diverse religious and social influences. A brief historical survey is included to indicate the general situation as well as certain outstand- ing features which are present throughout the whole country. No constructive theory is offered, but the need of such in relation to the moving life of the East and the impact of Christianity upon it is made apparent. The moral and religious problem lies at the basis of all education and is at the present moment that most acutely felt in India. A system perfected in every technical detail and embracing the whole country would prove a disintegrating and disastrous force if it lacked the religious basis for the training of character. Yet its provision through the highest revelation of religion is fraught with immense difficulty in a country of diverse and conflicting faiths. A secular policy for the education of boys has already produced its fruits, and may serve as a warning in the new feminine problem. In a final chapter this question is touched upon in its relation to the ultimate Christianization of Indian thought and life. II HISTORICAL SURVEY "We have now before us in that vast congeries of people we call India, a long slow march in uneven stages through all the centuries from the fifth to the twentieth." THE history of the education of women in India must keep in view the three con- flicting ideals of womanhood which have dominated Indian society at different epochs. These are the Vedic, the Moslem, and the Christian or Western. While our main concern is with the last, a brief glance into the early ages is necessary for a full comprehension of the con- flicting currents found in the modern epoch. In the early Vedic times women apparently enjoyed an equal status with men. There was no child marriage, no seclusion in the zenana, no sati, no prohibition of the remarriage of widows. Ladies of culture composed hymns and per- formed sacrifices as men did. Some even re- mained unmarried and had their share of the paternal property. There are many passages in the Brahmanas which show the high esteem 29 30 Education of Women of India in which women were held. Garga Vachaknavi, a learned lady, is mentioned as taking active part in a great assembly of learned men summoned by Janaka, King of the Videhas, to decide which of them would prove the wisest. There is a celebrated conversation between Yajnavalkya and his learned wife Maitreyi on the possible comprehension of the infinite by the finite. ^ " One poem, the Bhagwan Manu, prescribes a positive punishment for parents who keep away from school their boys after five and their girls after ten years of their respective ages." ^ It would appear, in fact, that girls had some share in whatever education was available. From about the fifth century B.C. in successive Hindu codes we find limiting laws, many of which were embodied about a.d. 200 in the Code of Manu. Their stringency is only weakened by a general recommendation that men " who seek their own welfare should always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments, clothes, and dainty food." The possibility of education was closed by the exclusion of girls from the initiatory caste rites, which served as a prelude to the education of boys. " The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women and to be equal to the initiation, serving the husband equivalent to the residence in the house of the teacher, and ' Cf. Ancient India. R. C. Dutt. 2 Vedic Quarterly, 191 1. Historical Survey 31 the household duties the same as the daily worship of the sacred fire." ^ " For women no sacramental rite is performed with sacred texts, thus the law is settled ; women who are destitute of strength and destitute of the knowledge of Vedic texts are as impure as falsehood itself, that is a fixed rule." ^ Fixed rules and settled laws do not always remain so where women are concerned, and there is considerable evidence that the women of the upper classes could often read and write, and, though the perusal of the sacred literature was denied, they certainly read and memorized the great popular epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which embody many Indian traditions and ideals. In the Ajanta caves, which cover a period from the second to the seventh century a.d., women are represented as engaged in study with books of palm leaves. Elsewhere they are referred to as musicians and artists. In the dramas of Kalidasa about the fifth century the inevitable jest at the expense of learned women is current coin. The comic character says he must always laugh when he hears a woman read Sanskrit or a man sing a song.^ Amongst the Rajputs, where status was determined by courage not literacy, the women held a high position. In the early days of the ' Manu, ii. 67. S.B.E. The Vedic Sacrament had for its object the study of Vedic texts. ^ Manu, ix. 18. S.B.E. * India through the Ages. F. A. Steele. 32 Education of Women of India nineteenth century the records of these early periods were carefully searched by Indian en- thusiasts to produce evidence of former literary achievements as an argument for the introduc- tion of Western education. A lecture by Pyari Chand Mittra, a Government schoolmaster, offers an interesting list headed by the famous Lilavati, after whom a mathematical treatise of the ninth century is named. Either she was the authoress thereof,^ or it was specially composed for her perusal. " Besides Lilavati there were many females of literary and scientific attainments. The Tamils boast of having possessed four female philosophers : viz. Avyar and her three sisters. Avyar was the daughter of one Bhaguvan, a Brahman, and outshone all her brothers and sisters in learning. ' She was contemporary with Kumbur, the author of the Tamil Ramayana, and she employed her eloquent pen on various subjects, such as astronomy, medicine, and geography ; her works of the latter description are much admired. Avyar remained a virgin all her life, and died much admired for her talents in poetry, arts, and sciences.' I am given to understand by an intelligent Hindu gentleman, that he knew of one Hatta Vidyalancar, a female scholar at Benares, who was versed in Smriti ^ and Nyaya. We also hear of the literary proficiency of the wives of Kalidasa and Kornut, Raja of Khona, the latter was conversant with astronomy and is well known by the sayings she has left 6 India through the Ages. F. A. Steele. 7 Smriti = tradition (of philosophy) . i Historical Survey 33 behind ; of Gargu, the wife of Yagnya Valkya, who is said to have possessed a good knowledge of Yog « Shastra." ^ With the Moslem conquests came the parda system with its withering influence. Devised by Mohammed, according to modern Moslem historians, for the protection of women in wild and lawless times, it has inculcated distrust of their character and capacities. In spite of the fact that many Indian women to-day look upon the parda as a sign of prestige and of their value in their husbands' eyes, the thoughtful observer must reckon it, in its ultimate social influence, as a symbol of distrust. " A man both night and day must keep his wife so much in subjection that she by no means be mistress of her own actions ; if the wife have her own free will, notwithstanding she be sprung of a superior caste, she will yet behave amiss " runs a later Hindu code, coupling this statement with minute regulations as to doors and windows. Isolated Indian women, both Hindu, and Moslem are prominent in later times, but they by no means represent the common life. Their chronicle is written because in some way or other they have been exceptional. In the thirteenth century it is said of Razia Begum, the only woman ruler in her own right of Moslem India, that the severest scrutiny of her actions could reveal no fault save that she was a woman.^® ^ System of philosophy. ^ Calcutta Review, September 1855. 10 India through the Ages. F. A. Steele. C 34 Education of Women of India The Calcutta School Society ascertained in 1818 that no provision of any kind existed for the education of women, and an attempted estimate of their general literacy places the figure at one in a himdred thousand. The old ideal had so utterly vanished, that it needed the touch of Western civilization to revive even the concep- tion of its former existence. This existence, shadowy and faint though it may appear in our eyes, is an enormous asset to the new movement in a country where everything Aryan and Vedic counts for much in the endeavour to create a national consciousness. The modern epoch is thus in part a Renais- sance, in part the introduction once more of the ideal of another faith. It will occupy our atten- tion in detail and falls naturally into three periods. The first dates from 1819, when the Baptist Mission in Calcutta started its first school for girls.>i till 1854, during which time the influence was almost entirely that of the women mission- aries ; the second, from the famous Educational Despatch of 1854 till 1884. is characterized by the Government policy of " grants-in-aid " to voluntary associations, by the first tentative beginnings of direct Government effort, and by the expansion of Secondary education under missionary auspices ; in the modern period dating from the presentation of the report of Sir William Hunter's Commission in 1884, the Government share in girls' education is much 11 History of Missions in India. J. Richter. Historical Survey ys more direct, the spontaneous Indian element enters more strongly, and for the first time the question of a differentiation in the curriculum arises. The first period is essentially the day of small things. The Danish missionaries of the eighteenth century had included girls in their schools but there is little record of their doings, and the schools organized by Miss Cook in Calcutta (1821) and Mrs Wilson in Bombay (1829) were in every sense pioneer work. Elsewhere is to be found the full story of opposition, of fluctuating desire, of tactful consideration and of careful enlistment of enlightened Hindu men, who had been touched by Dr Duff's educational work, as advocates of the cause. The same discrepancy between theory and practice which marks the advocacy of some of the Indian social reformers of to-day existed then, and the movement was by no means an extensive one. By 1840, Miss Cook (now Mrs Wilson) records about 500 girls at school in Bengal of whom half were in her own school. Dr Duff in outlining a missionary and educational policy for India, points to the need of a great development of the education of men before that of women could possibly follow. " The education " of the latter " on any great national scale must, from the very nature of their position, which those only who have been in India can at all adequately com- prehend, follow in the wake of the enlightened education " of the former.12 Events have justified 12 Biography of Alexander Duff. George Smith. ;^6 Education of Women of India this prediction and in many senses it is true that the present state of women's education in India corresponds to that of the men in 1854. The education given by the women missionaries con- sisted of such mere rudiments as were possible under the conditions and for the short period during which their pupils were available. Simple instruction in the Scriptures was also given. Madras and other centres followed slowly on the same lines. The work was in part linked with the ordinary mission work of the Churches and in part carried on through separate women's societies founded for the purpose in Germany and in Scotland. At first the Government atti- tude was distinctly negative, except for the cordial personal assistance given by Lady Hastings to Miss Cook, and the more nominal support of her successor Lady Amherst. In 1849, however. Lord Dalhousie informed the Bengal Council of Education that henceforth its functions were to include female education, and the Bethune School which had been privately founded by a legal member of Council, the Hon. Drinkwater Bethune, was brought under the control of the Government. In the Bombay Presidency things developed more rapidly and the Parsi influence asserted itself in independent effort. The first municipal schools for girls were probably started in 1850 at Ahmedabad. In 1852 a second stage of missionary education was reached by the estabHshment in Calcutta of a Normal School for the training of Christian female Historical Survey 37 teachers under the auspices of the society known later as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. The special method adapted to Indian conditions was not discovered till 1854, when the system of zenana-visiting, combined with educational instruction, was inaugurated in Calcutta by the Scottish Mission with the help of a clever Eurasian lady, Miss Toogood. By the great educational charter of 1854, the Government adopted the policy of fostering and encouraging private effort by a system of grants- in-aid to all institutions which could comply with certain stipulations as to buildings, number of teachers, text-books and type of instruction given. Religious instruction might be given but did not come within the purview of the Govern- ment officials. Departments of Public Instruc- tion were formed. Inspectors appointed, and the well known scheme of examinations inaugurated. It is stated in the Despatch that female education shall be given " frank and cordial support," ** The importance of female education in India cannot be over-rated, and we have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give a good education to their daughters. By these means a far greater pro- portional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the educa- tion of men." In the main the Government adhered to this principle, yet considered it prudent to withhold its hand from direct inter- 38 Education of Women of India ference with so delicate a matter. Whereas, in order to improve the school system as a whole, Government erected boys' schools in many places, to serve as models in management and efficiency, very few girls' schools were founded. The Circular order of 1868, issued under Lord Lawrence, states that '* unless female schools are really and materially supported by voluntary aid, they had better not be established at all." In pursuance of this policy the Bengal Adminis- tration Report for 1881 notes only two Govern- ment Primary schools for girls, 719 aided, and 107 unaided voluntary schools. The women's mis- sionary agencies in Calcutta were drawing a monthly grant of two thousand rupees for educational work. An Inspect ress^^ was at this time in the service of the local education authority for the inspection of parda schools. Her note that " every day brings signs that the demand for female education in Bengal is slowly advancing and extending " marks the rising tide. Two exceptions may be noted to this policy ; the exceptional activity in the district of the North Western Provinces (as they were then called) round Agra, and the movement of the Central Government under the influence of Miss Carpenter. The Agra experiment was, however, the response of Government to spontaneous Indian effort, and as the work of the Hindu pioneer who 13 Appointed to the Subordinate Educational Service in 1876. India Of&ce Note. Historical Survey 39 was its originator is little knowQ, the following account may be quoted.^^ " Even in our Asiatic Provinces, before the breaking out of the troubles, a desire had sprung up among the natives to extend the blessings of education to women. Gopal Singh, a Hindu gentleman, holding under Government the post of district Inspector of native schools, had suc- ceeded, through his own exertions, in establishing upwards of two hundred seminaries for young ladies in the Province of Agra which were attended by 3800 girls of the best families. By many of our countrymen in India, this is regarded rather as a social revolution than as an educational movement. As a rule, the natives look with suspicion on everything which comes from a foreigner, for which reason the great efforts made by the English have not produced corresponding results. * The establishment of a little school,' observes the Pandit, * which my own daughters and those of my immediate friends and relations attended at first like a charm, dispelled in a great measure the prejudices of my neighbours, and in- duced many to send their girls also. This example and my constant persuasion and reasoning have at last succeeded in inducing many respectable inhabitants of other villages to yield.' And so the movement bids fair to become national. The pupils are nearly all Hindus belonging to the more respectable classes. The teachers are all men." 1* Popular Education in the North Western Provinces. — Government Report, i860. 40 Education of Women of India " ' Want of female teachers,' says Gopal Singh, • was one great obstacle in the way ; but the guardians of the girls composing the respective schools pointed out men of an approved character, in whom they have full confidence, and I have appointed such persons only as teachers ; the result is very satisfactory.* "^^ The Government official note on the experiment is that the lack of the humanizing influence of trained school mistresses, and the impossibility of supervising the elderly Pandits were the real causes of the failure of the schools and not the Mutiny, which hindered the general development of education in the province but little. Accordingly the attempt was renewed in 1858 by one of the masters of the Agra College, a Jat ^^ of good family, in co-operation with Government. He succeeded in securing " school mistresses of high caste and relatives of rich and influential zemin- dars," 1^ and by 1863, when he was appointed special Inspector of female schools, their number had increased to 144. The curriculum seems to have been somewhat different from that of the boys' schools, and the Pandit notes with satis- faction : ** Girls are possessed of better memories and less selfishness than boys." The success and extent of the movement seems however to have been due to the personal influence of this one man, and with the passing of his generation the schools 15 Popular Education in the North Western Provinces. — Government Report, i860. 1° An agricultural caste. ^' Landowners. Historical Survey 41 degenerated in type. The rapid extension of this work under Government into other districts necessitated the employment once more of men teachers. Four female Normal schools were established which appear to have been such only in name. Two British Inspectresses were appointed whose reports indicate the same problems as those of a more modern date. " The villagers are not opposed to the schools but they value them chiefly as a means of support for Brahmans and relatives." ^^ They could not believe that the Government were in earnest on the subject, when the girls' school was accom- modated in a place not more attractive than a cow-shed and the boys' in a handsome building. In 1876, a drastic reduction of 212 schools took place and the question of female education dropped into abeyance for a period. The official comment thereon was that the State had incurred much expense in founding and maintaining these schools and that the results had been painfully disappointing. Historically, the experiment indicates the danger of extending girls' schools beyond the desire of the community and beyond the possibility of constant supervision on the part of British Inspectresses. The solution of the ever present problem of a supply of teachers was only a temporary one, and the failure of the Normal schools was attributed largely to the lack of a British superintendent. The influence exerted for the education of ^^ North Western Provinces Report on Education, 1875. 42 Education of Women of India women in India by Mary Carpenter, is a curious episode in a life whose main work in England was to lead the way to a national system of moral rescue and preventive discipline for juvenile criminals. During the last decade of her life (1867-1877), she visited India four times, and by her personal influence and enthusiasm she greatly affected the Government attitude and turned the rising conviction of the Indian Theistic move- ments into the right channels. Her position at home secured her a direct hearing in Government circles and the rapidity with which she adapted her pre-conceived notion of taking some Indian girls home for training to the wiser one of female Normal schools in India, proved once more her extraordinary power of vision in social problems. Herself of an intensely religious temperament, the revolt from the crudity of much of the orthodox religious teaching of the time led her sympathies largely in the direction of Unitarianism, and believing, like Mountstewart Elphinstone and many other Christian Indian statesmen of the period, that secular education for India was ultimately the more religious policy, she threw her whole influence into the establishment of schools which would not in any way interfere with the religious beliefs of the people. Yet her attitude to the mission schools was warmly sympathetic and she notes her indebtedness to the accumulated experience there.^^ Some further 1^ Life and Work of Mary Carpenter. J. E. Carpenter, 1879. Historical Survey 43 provision, however, seemed necessary in the case of girls, as the boys of the country had larger opportunities and the social system was in danger of one-sided development. 20 Her whole energy went towards the foundation of female Normal schools and in 1867 she secured a grant from the Central Government of £1500 per annum for five years for the establishment of these schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad on condition that an equal amount was provided by the native com- munity. This stipulation was in accord with the previous policy that Government action should not in so delicate a matter be in advance of native opinion. Mr Dadabhai Nauraji, in a letter to the Secretary of State for India, following on a memorial from Indians in London, gives a general survey of the income derived from the native endowments for female education in different parts of India at this time. Bombay . . . Rupees 40,000 Punjab . . . „ 4,321 Madras . . . „ 234 Bengal . . . „ 132 North Western Provinces „ It will thus be seen that a certain response existed even if only amongst a few advanced sections of the population. Further direct contributions were not immediately forthcoming, but after various memorials a Government grant of £1200 for five years to each of the capitals of the three 20 Six Months in India. Vol. I., p. 278. M. Carpenter. 44 Education of Women of India Presidencies was ultimately given without this special stipulation. Miss Carpenter's scheme for the Normal schools laid special emphasis on the need of experienced English supervision and instruction as the only means whereby the proper training could be secured and the dignity of the teaching profession for women raised. The failure of the so-called Normal schools in the North Western Provinces and the success of the mission training schools in Calcutta proves the wisdom of this policy. The new schools passed through various vicissitudes, but ultimately, Miss Carpenter had the pleasure of seeing substantial fruit of her labours at Ahmedabad, Poona and Madras. Much of the interest she had aroused amongst the Indian community was doubtless sporadic, and many of the schools started were short-lived, but in the main her influence on the development of women's education in India has counted as a dominant factor in the Government policy, in the establishment of the National Indian Association and in the permanence of certain institutions. The activity of Christian missions during this period seems extraordinary, when the difficulties which hampered Government efforts are con- sidered. Moreover, all their educational work was handicapped, so far as numbers were con- cerned, by the frank and open avowal of the desire to win their pupils ultimately for Christianity. The missionaries had, however, at their command the one essential asset — Western women who were willing to give themselves heart Historical Survey 45 and soul to the work. Eight new women's societies, both British and American, entered India between i860 and 1870, and educational work both in zenanas and in schools was their most effective means of contact with the people. Their pupils in the Primary stages were drawn both from the non-Christian population and from the orphans and converts in connection with the missions. As it was possible to retain the Christian girls, and even some of the others for longer than the usual period, owing to the exclusion of men teachers from the mission schools, a Secondary system on identical lines with that for boys began to be slowly built up. The Inspectress in the North Western Provinces notes that almost the only really prosperous Middle girls' schools are those in large stations superintended by ladies of the missionary societies. 21 Miss Carpenter's testimony to the schools in Madras and Calcutta is in similar terms. Where village schools were attempted they seem to have suffered from lack of constant super- vision. In 1870, the Isabella Thoburn School, Lucknow, was founded, and in 1880, the Sarah Tucker School, in Palamcottah. In 1881, the Free Church Mission School in Calcutta had the satisfaction of passing a successful candidate for the First Arts examination. This girl, and a pupil from the Bethune School who passed in the same year, were the first in all India 22 to accomplish this feat. 21 North Western Provinces Report on Education, 1877. 22 Ihid. 46 Education of Women of India The third period, from 1884 to the present date, is marked by a definite change in the atti- tude of Government. The Educational Com- mission of 1882 under Sir WiUiam Hunter revealed many abuses which had grown up in connection with the system in vogue for boys, and also showed how little had really been done for girls. The recommendation is that girls' schools should now receive " special encouragement and liberality." The further recommendation of the Educational Commission of 1900 is that girls* schools should receive liberal grants and that the fees should be less rigidly enforced. The standards of instruction in the Primary schools should be different and have special reference to the requirements of home life and to the occupa- tions open to women. This policy, emphatically reiterated in the Despatch of 1904, has worked out differently in the different provinces, as is indicated elsewhere. Its main features in the last two decades may be said to be the appoint- ment from home of experienced educators as Inspectresses of Schools in the Indian Educa- tional Service, the establishment of model schools for girls like those formerly created for boys, in districts where the aided schools had not reached the required standard or did not satisfy the wants of the neighbourhood, and a considerably increased financial outlay both in grants and direct educational work. In 1907 the total ex- penditure amounted to over forty-four lakhs. There is no desire in any way to supersede the Historical Survey 47 aided schools, on the contrary, it is recognized that the more their work is extended, so long as it is really efficient, the better for a country which like many others groans under its taxation, and where also the Hmit of desire for female education is still easily reached. To efficiency and adequate supply, the Government directs its attention. The proportion of the schools directly managed by the Public Authority to private or aided schools may be seen in the accompanying table, being slightly over 20.41 per cent, of the whole. Of the aided schools there is no separate official classification to show what proportion are managed by Indian committees, and what by missionary agencies.^^ Where possible this has been indicated from local informa- tion in the chapters on the separate pro- vinces. The Indian spontaneous element has become however much stronger during this modern period, not only in Bombay, where it has grown steadily since 1847, ^^^ also in connection with the various Samajes in the Punjab, United Provinces and Bengal. The orthodox Hindu element is seen in the system of the Mahakali Pathshalas24 started in Bengal in 1893, while probably the most remarkable feature in the Indian movement is the establishment of girls' 23 The Madras Report alone gives separate figures : Secondary schools. Government, 2 Mission, 35 Indian, o Primary schools, „ 208 ,. 523 „ 331 24 Pathshala= school. 48 Education of Women of India ro CI M N CO vO M On vO 00 M M CI 0> M M M td '^ t^ VO 1 ro q M TD < ^ 00 On M M ^ On t^ M rf M CO CO !-* Z u u < y a D g Q 2 ^1 M 1 N »0 00 »n M c< 00 CO 1" d 1 M Th 1 M t^ CI M 00 Cl^ M *3 C E c 1 d l>. CO vo to M to VO CO CO Training Schools High .... Middle English . Middle Vernacular Primaries ^ Historical Survey 49 -^ CO CO »o 0^ Tt- ■^ 01 "rt CO W M M "^ *r e2 S M o\ -^ M VO o 01 C4 1 ^ 00 vO_^ 1 (^ i-T CO i = o 5- M VO Tt" CO !>. t^ II M CO 01 CO vo" o M M 01 0( 3 •a c VO Tt- o\ 0\ ro 10 CO 0^ 01 rf J>. CO rf- ffi M CO M M 01 in lO VO VO CO T^ >.2 N 0^ c^ VO '^ ■■5''S t^ c» J>« 00 ct.ii ^^ o cT vo" u M 01 M i N M Tt- !>. CO o M VO t}- t^ o "? 10 ^ M 3 I-T h" w H ¥ is u p PC. S3 1 5 3 < o? JO Education of Women of India schools under committees of Indian gentlemen representing different faiths. This indigenous movement is due in part to a desire to provide a good education without direct interference with the religion of the pupils, and in part to a reaction from the extreme secularism and the Westernizing influences of the Government schools. Missionary work in education during the modern period is marked by continued expansion. The former success of mission agencies in taking a proportion of their pupils beyond the elemen- tary stages is redoubled. Of the forty three High Schools for Indian girls, only five in 1907 were under Government management. *' The bulk of female Secondary education is provided by missionaries." ^7 A glance at the religious classification table will show that out of some 17,000 Indian girls in the High and Middle Schools more than 10,000 are Indian Christians, while a large proportion of non-Christian pupils are also studying in mission schools and colleges. The Christian Primary schools in the villages have also greatly improved in type through the intro- duction in some places of modern eductional methods under the careful and regular super- vision of trained English managers. As we survey the situation as a whole, certain problems stand out as common to all India and as indicating how critical is the present period in relation to the ultimate development of her women. These are the extension of Primary ^'^Quinquennial Survey, 1907. Vol. I., p. 257. Historical Survey 51 education, the retaining of pupils in the higher stages, the nationalizing of the curriculum, the supply of teachers, and finally the place of the religious element in education. In spite of the recent rapid increase and the steady progress of the last twenty years, the percentage of girls of school age attending school is only 4.6,28 a,nd though the next Quinquennial Returns will probably show a marked increase, the desire for education has still in many places to be created. The proportion of girls in the Secondary stages is not shown by the number of those studying in High and Middle Enghsh schools,29 as many of these are in the Primary classes. Only 1208 girls were actually in the High School departments in 1907. In that year 178 girls passed the Matriculation examination.^^ '-^Comparative Percentages. In 1886 — 1.6 per cent; in 1896 — 2.1 per cent. ; in 1901 — 2.2 per cent. ; in 1907 — 3.6 per cent. ; in 1910 — 4.6 per cent. ^ Schools are classified as {a) Primary, including Standards I to IV. (6) Vernacular Middle, including Standards I to VII. {c) Anglo- Vernacular Middle or Middle English, in- cluding Standards I to VII. English taught from Standard IV. {d) High, including Standards I to X. English taught from Standard IV and used as a medium in the higher stages. This classification varies somewhat in the different provinces, especially as to the age for using English as a medium, {b) is entirely absent from some returns, {c) and {d) are often grouped together as secondary schools. 30 Qiimquennial Survey. Vol. I., p. 255. 52 Education of Women of India This small proportion indicates, apart from the social and religious customs which cause it, a lack of balance in the whole system. Are the circumstances under which higher education is given not such as commend themselves to the Indian mind ? Or is the course of studies pursued not of sufficiently practical and educational value to prove attractive to Indian women ? Is there any foundation for the popular belief that the physique of Indian girls is not strong enough for a prolonged school course ? These questions underlie much of the discussion in the following chapters. Two causes are apparently at work. In India as a whole 42 % of the girl pupils are studying in boys' schools. These naturally never proceed beyond the Primary stage, as co-education is not, except in the hill districts, in accordance with Indian ideas. There seems therefore a great need for increasing the number of Primary schools for girls only, whence the transition to the higher stages would be easy. In some districts there is practically an unlimited field for expansion in this way. Another cause may possibly be the difficulty of access to really first- class schools for non-Christian girls. The mis- sionary societies which have done so much for the higher education of boys have, with certain exceptions, concentrated their attention on the provision of excellent boarding schools for the girls of the Christian community rather than aiming at developing a parallel system for girls pwi> ^^^ ^ f" '^m^t^ r,J^J -^''-4'S SP"^ H &r«J *a^?!Ci ~:5 »ffi '" ■ -- 1 5 c .2 c S X > o O Historical Survey 53 which would attract the non-Christian element, as it has on the men's side. The new Middle and High schools which are springing up under Government and Indian auspices are an attempt to meet this need, but there is undoubtedly room for further development. The problem of the curriculum is a very subtle one. In the early days of the reform of girls' education in Great Britain, about 1862, ^^ the greatest need seemed to be the adoption of an adequate test of knowledge, and that test one already recognized, so that there might seem to be no lower requirement to suit the supposed lower capacity of the feminine mind. The same principle worked in the early days of girls' educa- tion in India and preparation for Matriculation ^^ seemed the only means by which the standard could be raised. Whereas in Great Britain the leading girls' High schools have developed a flexibility and variety of curriciilum wherein many a " womanly woman " has found her train- ing, even if she did not prefer to seek her education in one of the numerous excellent private schools, the girls' curriculum for Indian girls has been stereotyped on masculine lines. If we assume that education should prepare for future life, it seems clearly wrong that the preparation for spheres so totally different as those of Indian men and women should be identical. A highly trained missionary educator sums up the problem of the '^ Renaissance of Girls' Education, A. Zimmern. '' Cf. Appendix A. for curriculum. 54 Education of Women of India Secondary school as follows : — " In spite of the fact that less than i % go on to college, the whole plan of school education is made to lead up to Matriculation and instead of completing a school course, the aim is to prepare for a college course that is never entered upon." The Inspectress in Bombay writes in this connection : — ** Such a course is harmful, and girls leave these schools with weakened physique and very little in the way of real culture to compensate for it." An Inspectress from Madras also writes : — " The examination shadow is to be seen in every room from the third form upwards, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that sufficient time can be snatched for the teaching of a little recitation, drawing and drill, in view of the annual inspec- tion." In the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay a departmental examination is offered as alternative to Matriculation for girls, and in this such subjects as botany, hygiene, drawing, dress-making, cooking, appear as substitutes for algebra and geometry, but the schools prefer to send up their girls for Matriculation." The further question arises not only of the differentia- tion of the girls' curriculum from that of the boys' but also from that of Western girls. How is Indian female education to be brought into close touch with Indian environment ? The spontaneous Indian movement is in part an attempt to meet this problem, while on the other hand it inclines to view as a racial affront any suggestion to adapt the curriculum to the special needs of girls. The Historical Survey ^S Government Inspectresses are closely considering the matter and are eager to welcome any construc- tive policy which will lessen the danger of creating the " female Babu." Several missionaries are working hard against the denationalizing ten- dencies which in many cases were introduced before the reformed educational methods prevailed in the West. A conference of English educators and Indian missionaries was recently held in London to discuss Indian curricula and the relation of the educational problems of the East and West. It is true that the opinion of Indian missionaries is not yet unanimous on the need of any alteration, and as the bulk of Secondary education is in their hands their co-operation is essential. There is however good hope of a sound constructive theory being ultimately produced if women of sufficient courage, originality and ability can be found to plough for a while a lonely furrow. The curricula for the Primary schools is a different question. Some educators hold it to be the saner policy to accept the fact that the majority of the girls will only be at school for four years, and to adapt the whole course to this limitation. A correspondent of the Education Commission of the World Missionary Conference 1910, writes : — " Under such circumstances, therefore, the aim should be directed towards a sound elementary education in reading, writing and arithmetic, a knowledge of domestic economy and hygiene, and the formation of a strong moral character. The aim, that is, must be determined 56 Education of Women of India by the opportunities offered for education. It is better to reach a lower aim than to try for a higher aim and fail altogether. I believe the mistake that is made in regard to the education of Hindu girls is in attempting to do the impossible. There are many subjects which it is extremely desirable to teach, but the limited time during which the girls are teachable makes it imperative to con- centrate on what is attainable. We should aim, therefore, at demonstrating to the people that the girls who have been to school become superior housewives and mothers ; that what they learn is of real value to them in the home ; and above all, that their moral character is improved and strengthened." ^^ The Primary curriculum has already been remodelled to a certain extent. In Bengal, Eastern Bengal, and the United Provinces separate schemes have been issued. In the two former the courses follow the method of the Kindergarten in the lower classes, and include much nature study, also hygiene, domestic economy and sewing. In the United Provinces and Bombay the reading-books in use for girls are different. These reading-books are often the only printed matter which a village girl may ever possess, and they are intended to impart a large amount of useful information. A reformed cur- riculum in the hands of untrained teachers becomes, however, a dead letter, perhaps hardly less injurious than the mere literacy of former 33 World Missionary Conference Report. Vol. III. p. 51. Historical Survey 57 days, and thus the interdependence of the various educational problems is once again illustrated. Is it advisable to increase the number of Primary schools, and to adapt their curriculum without an adequate supply of trained teachers ? The problem of the teacher can be traced since the first beginnings in 1820, recurring with the same baffling insistency. The modern situation shows little advance, except that the absolute necessity of having all teachers to some extent trained is gradually being recognized, and grants are influenced by the degree in which this ideal is kept in view. The sources of supply for teachers in Indian schools of all grades axe women from English-speaking countries, Anglo-Indians or " country born " English girls from the Hill schools, members of the Brahma and Arya Samaj, Indian Christians, Parsis, married women of some education from the Hindu non- Brahman com- munity and lastly " women who have leaxnt to read and write at home." This last class is still astonishingly prevalent. Teachers from other sources are sometimes procured but, except in the case of married women, they are few in number. There are also a good many elderly pandits teaching in village schools. The trouble is that the demand enormously exceeds the supply. Here is a dilemma familiar to missions. A village school has no teacher ; there is at hand a mission pupil, who has finished her Vernacular Middle Examination, but has not been trained ; too often it ends in the appointment of the girl 58 Education of Women of India to the school, as the committee knows that the interval before she marries will be only too brief. This illustration applies throughout the mission field. The difficulties, moreover, attend- ing proper chaperonage of village mistresses are enormous. The employment of widows, where such are forthcoming, is subject to the same difficulty, but ultimately they may with proper training and care become a main source of supply. The hopes which early theorists have built upon the widows of India are to a certain extent already justified and may still be confidently cherished. As regards the opportunities for training, a special circular, issued by the Central Government, in 1901, has provided a needed stimulus to both official and private effort. It is difficult to dis- tinguish absolutely between Secondary and Primary training,^^ as some institutions have a few students doing more advanced work than the others. On the whole there is a distinct lack of provision for the separate Secondary training of women teachers ; very few women graduates have taken it and the creation of the opportunity might create the demand. The students in training are mostly Anglo-Indian. The pro- vision for Primary training is more adequate, though there is still in some instances a lack of that co-operation between missionary societies which would lead to more efficient work. The details of management and religious classification of pupils are given on pages 48 and 49. The 34 Q^ Appendix B. Historical Survey 59 great difficulty in all the Primary training work is the lack of preliminary knowledge ; in some of the institutes for widows, indeed, this is a long forgotten minimum. The influence of the previous curriculum upon those who pass on to the proper Vernacular Course after the Middle Examination is also felt. An experienced teacher comments : — ** The shadow of prescribed examina- tion which hangs over the school course before training tends to leave the girls quite unacquainted with the newer subjects, and they are not able to acquire these during their training course with sufficient thoroughness to teach them satisfactorily afterwards." The inter-relation of these problems needs to be borne in mind throughout. It seems in many ways as if the whole reform in women's education in India must begin from above downwards, namely in the High School and College stages combined with Secondary training, till the impulse imparted thence is felt throughout every grade. This subject is specially treated in the chapter on the University Education of women. Reform further can only come through closer co-operation, the need and opportunity for this will be apparent in the course of our study of conditions in the different provinces. Ill BURMA " Thou son of dewas ; to hear and see much in order to acquire knowledge ; to study all science that leads not to sin ; to make use of proper language ; to study the Law in order to acquire a knowledge of propriety of behaviour ; these are blessed things, Dewa, mark them well. " Thou son of dewas ; to be patient and endure suffering ; to rejoice in edifying discourse ; to visit the holy men when occasion serves ; to converse on religious subjects ; these are blessed things, Dewa, mark them well." The Mingala-thut, Buddhist Beatitudes. (Burma — Sir George Scott). IN Burma the ancient ideal of Indian woman- hood may still be seen in a somewhat purified form. The Buddhist faith which gives a touch of gentleness to every relation of life, has accentuated its best features and swept away many of the laws which hindered its develop- ment elsewhere. There is thus very little in the position of women in Burma at which even the most pronounced feminist could cavil. The woman is, if anything, the predominant partner and yet few realize that she rules. Gay, blythe and d6bonnaire, the sunniest spot in a sunny scene, 60 Burma 6 1 her rainbow-tinted tamein relieved by a short white jacket, a coloured scarf across her shoulder, and fresh flowers clustering in her dark lustrous hair, the Burmese woman is ready any day for any problem of life you may choose to propound. She is the bargainer, trader and financier of the family, and as such her legal and monetary position after marriage is well assured. Marriage is here an affair of the heart, and it is entered upon when young life flows strong in the later teens. A woman may not marry without her parents' consent before the age of twenty, but then if marriage is her wish, why should the parents not consent ? Why should anyone object to anything which promises to fulfil the heart's desire of another So runs a contented " laissez faire " policy. And life is not measured in terms of money by the Burmese. If education has a chance anjrwhere of being regarded not as a means of livelihood but as a leading forth of the mind to higher and nobler thoughts, it is here in Burma, in consequence of the mental char- acteristics of the people. Work beyond what is needed for the bare necessaries of life seems unnatural, and there is no perpetually rising standard of comfort, nor passion for accumulation to bind the Burmese to an unceasing wheel of toil. He pauses to be glad and to rejoice. The art of rejoicing is one of the chief arts of Burma, and there is perhaps no country in the world where it is carried to such a pitch of perfection. No generalization can be made about any people 62 Education of Women of India unless long years are spent in their midst, but the first impressions made by the Burmese on a stranger generally confirm the writers who characterize them as modern hedonists. There are books which show another side of the picture, and many sad facts (notably the looseness of the marriage tie^) bear them out, but leaving these aside, and turning to our particular problem, we find that the girls' schools of Burma are glad and happy places. There is an atmosphere of buoy- ancy and quiet zest in work which strikes the visitor at once, and this testimony is amply borne out by the teachers. It must, however, be remembered that not all girls in school in Burma are Burmese. A large proportion of them are drawn from the Karens, who occupy the tracts of hill country on the frontier of Lower Burma, in Tenasserim, and in the Delta of the Irawadi. The gradual civiliza- tion and raising of these tribes to the standard of the Burmese in general, is on all sides attri- buted to the excellent work of the missionaries, (the American Baptists and the Anglicans). Where Christianity comes its special social results follow. There is a Chinese community numbering over 40,000 and a strong Mohammedan section, not to speak of Hindu immigrants from South India, Tamils and Telugus, while the variety of the educational problem may be seen in the 1 "Marriage in Burma is simply concubinage, which may terminate at the desire of either party." Christian Missions in Burma. W. C. B. Purser. Girls at St Luke's Mission, Toungoo, Burma Burma 63 official enumeration of the other races under instruction : ** Karens, Talaings, Chins, Shans, Danus and Inthas, Chinese, Indians, Palaungs and Taungthus." The interior of Burma is inhabited by about fifty-seven different tribes speaking forty different languages. Feminine education however is not as yet a matter of importance amongst the hill tribes ; apart from the Anglo-Indian (Eurasian) schools, which lie beyond the province of this book, it affects mainly the Burmese, Karen, Chinese and Mohammedan communities. As regards general literacy, Burma ranks high in the provinces of the Empire ; the proportion of girls at school to girls of school-going age was 9.6% in 1910,2 as compared with 4% in 1907 in British India as a whole. This distinction is however mainly in the Primary stages, for the women graduates of Burma can so far be numbered on one's fingers. It is also entirely confined to those areas which have come into touch with modern civilization. There are large tracts of hill country where the women are totally uneducated, for the Burmese and Karen women alone contribute to the high proportion. One would however naturally expect to find a well developed system of female education throughout the various stages, offering possibly an example ^ to the other provinces, and it is surprising to find that this is not the case. On the contrary there is considerably less organization and no such 2 Public Instruction Report, Burma, 1910. 64 Education of Women of India definite policy in female education as in Eastern Bengal. The real reasons for the creditable proportion are the later age of marriage, the bright temperament and ability of the Burmese girl, the complete absence of parda, and the general social atmosphere, which permits girls to study un- hindered in boys' schools throughout all the stages. Thus there are more girls studying in boys' schools than in separate ones, viz. 73% as compared with 42% over India as a whole. The system seems in many ways to work well. Of the three contributing factors, which are found in every province, the work of Government, the spontaneous Indian movement, and missionary effort, the last overwhelmingly predominates in Burma, especially in the higher stages. The policy of the Government, more especially as regards girls' schools, has been to encourage, guide, and, to a certain extent, finance private institutions while undertaking little direct work of its own. As will be seen from the accompany- ing table, only four institutions are directly under the Central Authority. A certain proportion of girls may also be found in the Government and Municipal Secondary schools for boys ; the Primary schools for boys directly under public control only number fifteen and the pro- portion of girls in them is therefore a negligible quantity. No Inspectress or Assistant Inspectress has as yet been appointed, partly because funds are lacking and also because, apart from purely domestic subjects there does not, Burma 65 H s < z < u h •< > Oi s Number of Girls in Boys' Schools. 2 S S -g, S •0 '«^ »o hT d\ 0" a |l=o II CO 00 N 0 bo I .fcl bo a '3 VO r—t d o d a l-H 6 'bb s ^ CO 4) I I ? I bo (S I VO J^ 00 g S 1 rt ►-H to Vi as pi s S Pna, ^ n 66 Education of Women of India seem such a crying need for it as in other parts of India. The spontaneous Indian element may practic- ally be identified with the Buddhist educational movement, except for one small Mohammedan school in Rangoon where tiny girls learn the Koran. To Buddhism and the Buddhist monks may be attributed the high standard of literacy in Burma as a whole. Practically every Burmese boy knows how to read and write, and he has learnt it at the monastery.* In the nature of things girls are not admitted to these Kyaungs, but there are apparently some parallel schools for girls, conducted by nuns. " Besides the monastic public schools, there are private schools kept by laymen and occasionally also by women, in which girls as well as boys are taught." ^ The private institutions which do not come under inspection are mainly of this character. One fruit of the recent Buddhist revival is the Empress Victoria Buddhist Girls' School, which owes its existence and tone to the energies of MrsHla Oung. Her main idea is the combination of modern education with definite instruction in Buddhism and in this the school differs from all the other indigenous girls' schools, where little beyond bare literacy can be acquired. Excellent educa- tion up to " Anglo- Vernacular Standard VII " can be obtained here under competent mistresses or masters. An Anglo-Vernacular school has also * Missions in Burma, p. 13. W. C. Purser. ^ Burma. M. and B. Ferrars. Burma 67 recently been opened through private generosity for the girls of the Chinese Colony in Rangoon. There is naturally no spontaneous and independent effort for girls' education among the hill tribes, though in many cases they are ready to meet the missionary more than half-way. The missionary influence in the education of girls in Burma is thus a most important one, and includes every stage from the Kindergarten to Normal training. The chief agencies at work are the American Baptist Mission, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Methodist Episcopal Church of America. The Roman Catholic educational schemes exist largely for the Anglo-Indians and the Tamil immigrants from South India. The American Baptist Mission dates from the time of Judson (1810), and has now in connection with it over 70,000 native Christians speaking eight different languages. The educational scheme for their Christian girls is very thorough, and leads up through a system of small village schools to their Burmese boarding school in Kemmandine, a suburb of Rangoon, and to an excellent mixed Karen school, also in Rangoon. There is a separate Normal school, and one or two especially clever girls are to be found in the Matriculation class of the Baptist Boys' High School preparing to go to the Mission College. A large proportion of the non-Christian girls are drawn into these schools by the efficiency of the education offered. The centre of the S.P.G. 68 Education of Women of India work is St Mary's School, Rangoon, which dates back to 1865, and is a first-class institution in every way. It is satisfactory to note that several of the staff are former pupils who have returned to teach here, after training in the S.P.G. Normal School. Some of the staff are Anglo-Indian, but a good proportion are Burmese Christians. Two English ladies are in charge. There are about one hundred boarders, mostly Christian, but including some Buddhists, and nearly an equal number of non-Christian day scholars. The school works under the Government Code, a ad earns an excellent grant. There are three other good S.P.G. schools for Burmese or Karen girls which lead up to St Mary's. Those at Toungoo and Mandalay have a considerable number of boarders. A few of these are drawn from the immigrant population — as Kansi, the little Ghurka girl in the accompany- ing illustration. Her father is a Christian, and contributes regularly to her maintenance. The policy of the S.P.G. Mission seems, so far, rather to concentrate on a few good schools than to develop much village educational work. The Methodist Episcopal schools, like those of the S.P.G., are partly for the Anglo-Indian com- munity, and partly for the indigenous population. In Rangoon they have two good High schools, one of each type, and other schools in the country. The educational work done by other societies in Burma is not extensive ; but, where every unit counts, it has its own contribution to make. There are arge tracts of hill country round Burma Ghurka Girl Boarder at S.P.G. Girls' School, Mandalay Burma 69 which are still waiting for missionary advance, and where the women are totally uneducated. The pioneer work to be done would be of the type usual amongst primitive peoples, and might produce the same magnificent results as amongst the Karens. Passing from the organizing agencies to the actual pupils, the religious classification as seen in the accompanying table is of interest. The Anglo-Indian pupils pass through the various stages of their education in the High School, hence their absence in the statistics of the Primary schools. The proportion of Mohammedan girls in the High schools is striking, and is possibly due to the fact of mixed parentage ; Buddhist freedom to a certain extent influences Mohammedan customs in Burma. By the new regulations only 15% of the places in the ''European" schools are available for Burmese or Indian girls, and these vacancies are eagerly sought after. The curriculum pursued in the various schools is laid down in the Government Code, and there are no schools of any importance which stand apart and develop an experimental curriculum of their own^ as occasionally happens in other provinces. Burma has, as yet, no University of her own, and the curriculum of the schools with the corre- sponding departmental examinations is to a certain extent determined in relation to the Calcutta Matriculation. Schools are classified as " High " in which after a good vernacular foundation, the pupils are taken up to Matricula- JO Education of Women of India t N CO M j> 00 ja t-* 00 6 i «o w r^ H O o M « CO I^B s o\ 00 t^ "H ro CO c M s M ^ rt T^ ro CO M M > .2 M 10 ^ N CO ■•5.2 '*• U-) M M ^^ i-T N U (« a Ov T)- 00 M s Tf- t^ cs u-i £ fO Tt- M ON 3 M fi H • 1 u • rt Q £ Burma 71 tion, English being used as a medium of instruc- tion in the higher forms ; " Middle Anglo- Vernacular," in which English is taught orally from the Primary stages and as a written language from the fourth class, instruction is given only up to the test of the seventh standard, and in the latter stages English is used as a medium ; " Middle Vernacular," in which pupils are taken up to the seventh standard, but no English instruction whatever is given ; and " Primary," where vernacular education is only carried to the fourth standard. The curriculum is in many respects very similar to that found in schools at home, and is open to the usual criticism that its influence is denationalizing. A recent order limits the teach- ing of English in the first three classes to simple conversation lessons, in order that more stress may be laid on correct vernacular. The advan- tages of the oral method in the hands of a skilled teacher are undoubted, but it is a question whether the Department have not been somewhat premature in this respect. The Kindergarten classes are excellently conducted in some schools, and every effort is made to keep them as Burmese as possible in character. In drawing, a complete series of copies based on Burmese design and ranging from the most simple to the most elaborate, has been prepared and is in extensive use. It is when the stage of optional and alter- native subjects is reached that the denationalizing element enters more strongly. In one High 72 Education of Women of India school visited, only about 25 % of the girls were taking Burmese, in some forms only one pupil did so, while many of them take Latin, and a pre- ponderating proportion choose English history as being an easy examination subject. The number of Anglo-Indian girls partly explains this choice. Indian history is a compulsory subject throughout, and the Government Code offers ample scope for vernacular and classical Oriental study. It is the choice of the individual pupil or parents which is at fault. Sewing is not a subject which carries a Government grant, and excepting at a few of the European schools, it is at a low ebb. The Principal of the S.P.G. High school acted as Inspectress for the Department in this subject during 1910 in some twenty-six schools, and through her efforts the standard has been to some extent raised, but there is a crying need for a properly appointed Inspectress, who will develop this subject as well as a sound system of in- struction in hygiene and domestic economy adapted to Burmese conditions. The tendency is for the girls to drop off in the higher forms at about sixteen years of age, so that very few really go up for the Matriculation examination, and these mainly with intent to teach. Others pass after Standard VII. straight to the Normal school. In outer circles a strong destructive criticism is directed against the anglicizing tendency of education in Burma, but amongst the missionaries actually engaged in it there is not the same Burma 73 realization of a possible need for change as is found amongst certain sections of missionary- educators in other parts of India. The reason for this may partly lie in the fact that the Western education of girls — indeed education at all beyond the mere rudiments — is of later date in Burma than elsewhere, and that consequently its full effect cannot yet be traced. Moreover, among the Burmese there is not the same " nationalist " spirit as exists in India proper, and this directly influences the educational problem. It must be remembered, too, that there is not the same gulf between the woman's life and the man's as in other parts of India, and that the system used for boys may in many respects be excellent for girls. But whether we have here in its early stages a problem which is destined to become more acute, is a subtle question and one worthy of close inquiry. At any rate, no constructive theory has as yet been put forward by any mission school. The general public, however, criticize, and taking that criticism for what it is worth, there is a general indictment on the ground of the education given being mere " cram," and not really a train- ing of mind and character. A Burmese Deputy Commissioner writes : "If women have become more educated, many have also become more frivo- lous, spending their time in reading songs, zatsi' ^ Dramatic tales with pointed moral. The ' ' Pyazats, ' ' the modern development thereof are popular burlesque plays, performed at festivals. C/. Burma. Sir George Scott. 74 Education of Women of India and useless trash, instead of doing more useful work." 8 A special accusation is also directed against the general atmosphere of the school, which is too reminiscent of English to be the natural one for a foreign country. Both these criticisms are apparently concerned more with the problem of the teacher than with that of the curriculum. The Government Code is elastic, the trouble is the lack of emphasis laid on Oriental subjects. A British or American missionary may often enter at once into school life in Burma without any opportunity of knowing the people or the language, and be thus unable to give the Burmese tone, which in theory she may or may not value. I observed the special case of a young American at the head of a large Anglo-Vernacular Middle school who was obliged to interview her new pupils through an interpreter, and had no means of supervising the instruction given in the vernacular throughout her school. The educational problem translates itself here into the mission problem of under- staffing. It may doubtless be argued that the denationalizing influence in the mission schools is that of a religion presented in its Western aspects but it is interesting to note that the same atmo- sphere is felt in the Empress Victoria Buddhist Girls' School,^ which is constantly under the personal influence of Mrs Hla Oung, a leading Buddhist. The definite statement, " We wish to be English in everything except our religion," 8 Public Instruction Report, p. i8. ^ Cf. p. 66. Burma 75 affords a striking contrast to the care with which some missionaries seek to preserve all that is good and right in national tradition and custom. Passing from the dominant influence to the staff, through which the Head-mistress must transmit her ideals, what opportunities of training have these teachers had ? As regards the Normal schools the whole work is practically in the hands of the missionaries. There are four Normal schools for girls all under mission management. These included in 1910 eighty-eight pupils, of whom sixty-nine were native Christians. There are also a few girls in the Government Normal schools for men, notably two Mohammedan girls in the Mandalay school. The criticism in the Government Report is that the literary work demanded of the female students is too severe, especially if they do not aim at teaching in any institution higher than a Primary school. Some alteration in the curriculum is suggested. More- over, many teachers cannot afford to defer the opportunity of an immediate salary, and do not pass through the Normal school. Most of those in charge of the mission schools, however, insist upon Normal training for their teachers. The type of teacher produced is not, according to general opinion, a very high one ; she is intellectually weary, and looks upon her career mainly from a pecimiary point of view. There are, of course, marked exceptions. Teachers' Associations do not exist, and it is questionable whether these 76 Education of Women of India would be advisable owing to the heat and strain of the necessary hours of teaching. The material, therefore, with which the Headmistress has to shape her school is not of the best quality, and it is all the more necessary that she should have leisure from routine for personal contact with both pupils and staff. This is just what she does not get. A very large proportion of her time is often taken up by work on Government schedules, and in personally teaching the higher English classes. In mission schools, which frequently have non-Christian teachers on their staff, she may also have to teach the Scripture lessons throughout. So far, we look in vain for Burmese women who have passed up to the University to train as leaders. Of the twelve women Arts students in Rangoon, only one is Burmese. She is a Christian. Even the Anglo-Indian com- munity, from which many of the teachers are drawn, rests content with the qualification of First Arts (a two years' University course), and no graduates have, as yet, to the writer's know- ledge, taken Secondary training. The ideal for women's education in Burma is the production of some fully qualified Burmese Head-mistresses, who will be able to impress their individuality on the whole system, and thus make it contribute to the beauty of their national characteristics. It will thus be seen that the day of foreign and missionary educators in Burma has in one sense only begun ; they are needed for pioneer work amongst the untouched hill districts ; for the even Burma 77 more difficult task of guiding the course of higher education into the right channels ; and for the work of training those who will prove in the future its best interpreters to their own people. IV EASTERN BENGAL AND ASSAM. " A woman's place in the National life will now t)est be filled by the realization of herself ; she must grow to her full stature, taking as her due her share of God's light and air, of the gifts of the Earth-Mother," C. SORABJI. TO pass from the sunny smiling country of the Burmese to Dacca, the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam, ^ is to enter a scene of strange contrast, and one marked by monotone and inertia. The brilliant Eastern sun shines down, but its rays are caught by no golden roofs and domes ; sombre grey stone meets the eye, with here and there traces of the carving and colouring left by the alerter men of centuries ago ; there are no smiling happy groups of women busy with the day's work, their gay garments bright against the background of tropical green, but only here and there ghostly figures clad in burqas,^ or some scantily draped '* sweeper " 1 This was written before the Durbar Proclamation on the further re-adjustment of Bengal areas. Calcutta is now the capital of the Bengali-speaking districts. 2 White veil with eye-holes, enveloping the whole person. 78 Eastern Bengal and Assam 79 women, little heeding, and as little heeded. A strange town it is, with a strange mixture of civilizations, and yet possessing withal a certain charm of latent capability. Relics of a Hindu past are there, almost lost beneath the Moslem dominance of the thirteenth century, which brought with it some of the glory of architecture and the learning of Upper India, but seemed to take on the colourlessness of the land to which it came, winning chiefly the lower classes ; now the new Western influence has come, and has given to the Bengali, by means of education, a unity which repudiates its source, thus creating a young India awake and alert. The diverse characteristics of the capital are in a sense typical of the diversity of the whole province and of the problems of its administration and development. The new province created by the Partition in 1905 includes the territories formerly administered by the Chief Commissioner of Assam, to which have been added certain districts lying on the Eastern side of the bay of Bengal, the river regions of the Padua and the Jumna, and the Chittagong division which borders on the Burmese hill district. It thus includes large city populations, such as Dacca with over go,ooo inhabitants, and great river districts such as Sylhet, and the Padua Meghna Delta, with its intersecting channels, which in the rainy season multiply by the hun- dred till the country is a network of waterways, and in which every brown boy is as much at home as he is on land — a country of villages and of rich 8o Education of Women of India abundant harvests, where the monsoon fails not, and famine is unknown. Then there are the hill districts — the Khasi and Garo Hills, the native states of Manipur and Tippera, and the country bordering on Burma, where a strong and vigorous people, marked by a hardy independence, are only gradually being touched by modem civilization. While the educational problem is mainly a rural one — in 1901 only 2 % were enumerated in the sixty one towns — the urban minority, with its demand for higher education, cannot be ignored. Female education in Eastern Bengal has certain aspects which make it differ from that in other provinces, and render it a peculiarly interesting study. Whereas elsewhere we shall trace the development of the three different influences — the spontaneous Indian movement, missionary efforts, and the work of Government, the last, in varying degrees, a unifying and co-ordinating agency — here we have one well-organized Government Female Education Committee, on which all these interests are represented, and by which a unified policy is in process of being worked out. This Committee was appointed after the Partition in 1907, to work under the Director of Public Instruction, and consists of those officials directly concerned, of non-oflicials of various creeds, of representa- tives of several missionary agencies, and of a few Indian and British ladies selected mainly for their interest in such matters. It is in no sense a popular body, and it has no executive function ; c pq O o u C/5 I! Eastern Bengal and Assam 8 1 but it has done some extremely useful work. Its policy has been to survey the field, taking into account the diverse and complicated nature of the task to be accomplished, to utilize so far as possible all existing agencies, and to plan a thorough and scientific scheme embracing all classes. The development of this scheme must be one of slow and patient labour. No great social scheme which is to have permanent results can be enforced in a revolutionary or sudden way, and least of all where prejudice has to be overcome, where public opinion must be influenced, and where possibly the passing of generations and the influence of heredity are needed for its fruition. In a sense the very backwardness of the province is its opportunity. The possibility before it of laying foundations on sound educational prin- ciples, of using the experience gained by other provinces in the adaptation of certain types of institutions to local conditions, of surveying the whole field without haste, and of making a systematic effort to raise all classes and all sections of the population, augurs well for the future stand- ing of the province, and may produce a better type of education than that which has developed more quickly and more sporadically elsewhere. A sketch of the present situation must naturally take as its centre the work of this Committee, the result of its survey of the classes affected, its utilization of existing agencies, its constructive work, and the practicable character of its aims. What, then, of the actual girls to be educated ? 82 Education of Women of India The classes affected are many and diverse, educa- tion and rank often var5dng in inverse proportion ; the educational and the social problems are here again so closely interwoven that the holding of parda parties has a very definite relation to the statistics of school attendance. The Indian Christians, of whom there are over 66,000, mostly living in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills are naturally keenly eager for education, and contribute con- siderably to the supply of teachers. About the non-Christians it is impossible to generalize.^ From the young Begum * directly descended from one of the Moslem invaders to the child of some peasant woman, who grudges her from the work of the field to the seemingly profitless village school, is a far cry, and the gamut of possibilities lies between. Here is a high-born Moslem girl, whose male relatives hold University degrees and Government appointments, and who will allow a certain advance to their women- folk, but no more. For instance, an English teacher may be admitted for a few hours a day, or if the family be wealthy and of sufficient rank, an English governess may be secured to devote her whole time to the pupils. Here is another still so tied by conservatism that she may not see English ladies or learn of modern thought. Her male relatives may give her the 3 Mohammedans, 18 millions. Hindus, ii| millions. Animists, i^ millions. 1901 Census. 4 This title is used of a Mahommedan woman of a ruling family, or who can prove direct descent from the Prophet. Eastern Bengal and Assam 83 smattering of Koranic lore which is necessary for religion. The Mohammedan women of the upper class can nearly all read Urdu, and are clever with their needles. Here is a girl of the Brahma Samaj, supposed to be free, and yet one might almost say shy of her freedom, with every oppor- tunity to take the higher education which would fit her for social influence, she yet ceases her studies when only some three standards beyond her Hindu sister. Another girl with the same up-bringing has sufficient strength and determina- tion to persevere through the whole course and finish with Normal training or University honours. There is a strong demand for education up to a certain stage also among the Brahmans, Kayasths,^ and Baidyas,^ a demand which is, however, limited to the few years before the parda is strictly drawn, an event which happens between the ages of eight and eleven. Then there are the lower class Mohammedans, who are anxious only for Koranic education, the Namasudras,^ whose intellect is at so low a level that a whole term may be spent in acquiring a single letter of the alphabet, and the bill tribes where parda is non existent, and where in certain cases the women are more literate than the men. The whole enumeration shows how very diverse ^ A literary caste. 6 A literary caste, about 25 per cent, of their women are literate. 7 Descendants probably of the original inhabitants of the district. 84 Education of Women of India and complex are the classes for whom education must be planned. Passing to the agencies at work, there have been in the more advanced portions of the province, apart from Government and the municipalities, spontaneous efforts to educate girls. Some of the present village schools are of this indigenous type, and are kept possibly by an elderly Hindu pandit and his wife, where little girls are collected for a few hours daily — ^not stated hours — and drone over Bengali books of an archaic type, in an ill-ventilated room. The result of this education may be the ability to recite certain shlokas ^ and to check a marketing account, or merely the prestige in the marriage market of having been to school. Where it is possible to improve schools of this type or standard, they fall into the general scheme, but as a rule they are "passed by on the other side." The Mahakali Patshala,^ started in 1907 at Mymensingh, represents again spontaneous effort of a more advanced type, and is an attempt to give a modern and strictly religious education on Hindu lines. This institution is much more advanced than the parent Patshala, described on page 113. The Mohammedan community have been more backward in organizing schools ; a circular sent out by a Sub- Committee on behalf of the Government to ^ Shloka, a particular type of Sanskrit metre, often used loosely to mean any verse of Sanskrit poetry. ^ Patshala = school. Eastern Bengal and Assam 85 various Mohammedan associations produced very few replies, including the following : " But it is not proper time for starting Mohammedan female education, as the people are not willing to have their girls educated." There is, however, a certain number of Muktabs or Koranic schools, where girls are taught what is necessary for religion, and in some cases a little secular know- ledge. The most important missionary agencies in the province are the Baptists from Australia, New Zealand, America, and England, and the Welsh Presbyterians, all of whom are carrying on good educational work. The Sisters of the Oxford Mission have also entered the field more recently. Taken as a whole the missionary contribution is, however, much smaller than in other provinces. The best vernacular school for girls in Dacca is that which has a hostel attached of the English Baptist Mission, and the training of teachers at Nowgong in the hill districts is proving specially useful to Government. This can be better considered later in relation to the hill districts as a whole. The mission schools are a welcome addition to the educational scheme, and it is satisfactory to note the cordial relations and co-operation between their organizers and the Government officials. As regards their extension, if new schools were contemplated in a town or district where a good accessible school already existed, grants would probably not be given, but as the field is practi- cally unlimited, the question is merely academic. 86 Education of Women of India Thus the constructive poHcy of the Government Committee ^^ embraces these existing agencies and all schools entirely under public control, whether municipal or directly under Government. The Committee aims at the ideal of a Primary school in every village, in more populous centres the raising of a certain number of these to schools of a rather better type, the establishment of a Government school (Middle or Anglo-Vernacular) in the headquarters of every division, the warm encouragement of all private Middle schools, and the development of some definite system of parda instruction which could reach the higher and stricter classes. The system is completed by three existent High schools. Taking these different stages in order we must first consider the Primary schools. There were in 1909, 4501 Primary schools in the whole Province, an increase of about 800 on the preceding year. Assam and the Surma Valley are scantily provided. The establishment of a sound system of Primary schools is naturally the chief aim, but its attainment depends on the development of a thoroughly efficient staff of teachers. The word " primary " covers a multi- tude of sins, and is very varied in its apphca- tion. Here, for instance, is a school of the aided type in a village of over 6000 inhabitants. The little girls are crushed together on ill-constructed benches in an ill-ventilated room, agonizing in 10 Information throughout is chiefly drawn from Proceedings of Female Education Committee, Eastern Bengal and Assam 87 different degrees of shyness under the thrilling ordeal of a visitor. All of them are Hindus, for the Mohammedans do not go to school in this village. Apparently there is scarcely any system of classification except for the broad distinction of " little " and " less." All are under eleven years of age and, according to the village custom, have walked to school in charge of the school servant. The school is supposed to teach up to Standard III, but every girl who leaves able to read and write, and not much injured in health from sitting daily for five hours in a cramped position, may consider herself lucky. The attempts of itinerant Sub-Inspectors at teaching the venerable pandit how to teach, have fallen on unscathed shoulders, yet there is a certain pathos in the owl-like glance with which he fixes the two Sub-Inspectors, who answer all the visitor's questions without the least reference to him. For the pandit knows that his day is done — a new school is in process of erection, and an energetic Sub-Divisional Officer is on the outlook for a trained schoolmistress. With the passing of the pandit will go much of the quaintness of the Indian school, which sentimentally may be regretted, but which must yield place to the modem demand for efficiency. It is refreshing to turn to a school of the new order, an urban one. The day is wet, so only twenty-five out of forty pupils are present, Hindus chiefly, of the Kayasth caste. The three lowest classes are happily seated on matting with a tiny desk in 88 Education of Women of India front ; the older ones are still swinging their feet on too high a bench — but what good is there in having Inspectresses if there is nothing to improve ? A tidy time-table on the wall shows the rotation of lessons. There are shells for arithmetic, maps and object-lesson sheets, there is space for drill or breathing exercises at the end of every hour, there are neat specimens of sewing (not perennial ones which have survived many an inspection) and above all, there is a happy smiling mistress, whose personality inspires new ideals and new thoughts. A bright little maiden of eleven in a blue and gold sari, who gaily translates an Urdu conversation into Bengali, has designs on a scholarship for the Eden High School, and perhaps some day she, too, may be an " Ustani " ^^ as wondrous wise as her mistress. This is the bright side of things, but it shows the possibilities which lie under dry statistics. The recent report of 1910 on Primary schools in the town of Dacca shows an increase of about 200 girls in one year. Of the sixteen schools, twelve are now provided with mistresses and the general progress is satisfactory, although there are still many difficulties to overcome, especially if the propor- tional increase in the number of pupils exceeds, as is probable, that of the trained teachers available, and proper space is lacking. The problem in Dacca is typical of the urban problem throughout. Primary education in the hill districts is of a different type. 11 Teacher. Eastern Bengal and Assam 89 The Middle Schools, partly English and partly only vernacular, are some twenty in number, varying in type from a long established school such as the Alexandra Girls* School at Mymen- singh, with ten teachers, and a Headmistress from the Isabella Thoburn College,!^ to one which has only six scholars beyond the Primary stage and one mistress, but which must be raised in standard and type for the sake of the district. The generosity of the native landowners is to be noted in connection with these schools ; in two cases a whole new building and site have been acquired in this way. All roads lead to Mecca, and all pursuit of higher education in Eastern Bengal tends to the Eden Girls' High School, Dacca, where, under the supervision of Miss Lena Sorabji, the portals of Calcutta University are successfully reached. This school is the Model High School for the province, the two others at Chittagong and Mymensingh are not as yet so efhciently staffed or equipped, though that at Chittagong holds its own at the Matriculation examination. There are some two hundred girls in the Eden High School, mostly Hindu, with a fair proportion of Brahma Samaj and Mohammedan girls, including also. a few Christians. The curriculum is that of a first-class English High school in its relation to the Matriculation subjects. In the lower classes the scientific principles of education are in full vogue, story and group method, with an excellent '' C/. p. 137. go Education of Women of India Kindergarten apparatus. The teachers are mostly Indian with three Anglo-Indians, and there is also a very efficient music mistress. Moral instruction is given, and there is throughout an excellent tone. It is possible to attend the school and keep strict par da, a young Begum has recently been assigned to it by the Court of Wards in order to complete her education. A very important feature of the school is the Training department, in which teachers are trained for the Bengali-speaking parts of the province. (Assamese teachers are trained at Nowgong and the Hill Districts in Shillong.) Training is given free on condition of teaching in a Government school for two years thereafter. There is both an English and a Vernacular course, and the effect of the latter can be seen in such schools as the Primary school sketched above. There are three students at present in the English department, and twenty-two in the Vernacular. Any girls passing the Matriculation examination from here are certain of Government scholarships, or " stipends " as they are called, to the University of Calcutta. The only drawback at present is the lack of space, but plans are already de- finitely formed, and a site secured for new buildings, which will ultimately include a College department. But when all is said, it is only an infinitesimal fraction of the female community which is touched by the Middle and High schools. The fourth sphere of the Committee's work, the organizing OS c (D cq CO CO u O O (J m Eastern Bengal and Assam gi of a definite system of parda instruction, is there- fore in some ways the most important. Many important and far-reaching influences are at work behind the veil, and it is here, too, that the influence of the Education Committee must be felt. A comparison of the numbers attending Primary schools (84,798) with those attending High and Middle schools (1846), shows how limited is the school period for the average girl. The parda instruction to a certain extent supplements the education of those children who are withdrawn for marriage at about ten years of age. On the other hand, as the number of girls of school age at school is only 3%, a certain amount of this work is amongst the absolutely illiterate older women, though the minimum age of ten prevents overlapping with the Primary schools. A further aim is to create a more friendly atmosphere in the zenanas towards the whole question of educa- tion. In some cases it is an irtimediately fruitful work, in others a sowing of seed for the future. There are now some 600 girls and women under instruction of this type in seven different towns, the classes in Dacca being most fully developed. Here there are four governesses at work, each with six centres to teach. Two of them are Mohammedans, one Brahma Samaj, and one Christian, the last under missionary super- intendence. The education given is of the simplest type, including, however, in some cases drawing, painting, history, and geography. Indeed when the circumstances are taken into 92 Education of Women of India consideration it could hardly be otherwise ; the classes are held in the houses of progressive men, rich or poor, and consist as a rule solely of the women of the household and their immediate neighbours, the numbers varying from six to about twenty. The ages of the pupils vary from eight to fifty, all are at different stages, all are irregular in attendance, many are accompanied by babies, and the class generally ends in individual instruction. Yet progress is being made, and it is good to see the group of daintily dressed women awaiting the arrival of the teacher who forms their link with the outer world. A very great deal depends on her personality and skill in overcoming prejudice. One of the teachers is a Mohammedan lady of good position, the wife of a pleader ; she drives in strict parda to and from her work, and has naturally inspired other strict Mohammedans with confidence in the scheme. Recently an English governess has begun work in Dacca under the Committee, but in her case there is a binding fee of five rupees for every family who employs her. The system is one which is peculiarly adapted to Eastern Bengal with its strict parda customs, and though expensive to Government ,13 is in the meantime more than worth while in its indirect influence in breaking down prejudice and supplementing the whole system of instruction. ^3 50 rupees per month in addition to 25 rupees gari- allowance is given to each governess and the pupils do not contribute much. Eastern Bengal and Assam 93 Education in the Hill Districts reveals a some- what different problem. There is no parda, co-education is frequent, and suits the customs of the people. A Lushai writer dealing with this says : " The men and women are all on the same footing, except in some cases, where the women are master." In the hill tracts of Assam, some 2551 girls are studying in boys' schools and 701 in separate girls' schools, practically all of the latter and a large proportion of the former are worked by the missions, which are doing excellent service to education. The schools are much appreciated, and the Government grant of 4022 rupees to the mission schools is almost equalled by the contributions of the people themselves. Special arrangements are being made by Govern- ment with the American Baptist Mission at Nowgong for the training of Government teachers in the Mission Training School. In some parts education is absolutely at a standstill ; for example, in the Mikir hills, " female education is supposed to have perished fifteen years ago with the death of its only representative, a young girl of Nowgong ! " In Chittagong Hill District the opposition is that of a wild uncivilized people. A boarding school is the only possiblity, but that seems too terrible ! The parents are half-civilized, and will send a child for one month and withdraw her the next ; the children, moreover, have their own way. " If the parents say their girl shall go to school, and she says ' I will not,' she does not go." There are at present seven precious pupils 94 Education of Women of India in the Mission Girls' school at Chandra Ghona. In Tippera there is much opposition. Twenty- five girls are, however, reported in three mission schools in the latter district. An interesting account of indigenous schools comes from a lady missionary working in one of the hill districts : "There are some small Primary independent village schools taught by Hindu men or women voluntarily. Some of these receive Government aid, and some do not. The parents of the scholars contribute a little towards the teacher's support, and supply the school-house. It is generally believed that the visits of a missionary to such schools lend prestige to them, and the children are encouraged to attend by the small rewards given by the missionary for attendance and Scripture know- ledge. Hence such scholars invariably wel- come regular visits." The main problems are those of co-education, the training of teachers, and the multiplicity of dialects. Steps are also being taken to develop weaving and local industries in many parts for the less advanced tribes. Such in brief outline is the Government pohcy for female education. How far is it a living reality ? " The moment imagination has gone out of your Asiatic policy, your Empire will divide and decay." i* How far is there imagina- tion in the educational policy ? How far is it magnetic, flexible, and inspiring ? A policy, of necessity, is reflected by the persons who 14 Indian Speeches. Lord Curzon. Eastern Bengal and Assam 95 administer it, the inspectorate and teaching staffs, the organizing Committee, and the general social attitude of the community. The task of the Inspectorate is no easy one, and the word calls up visions of many successive nights spent in bullock carts, in trains, and on horseback to reach the inaccessible parts of an inaccessible province, a multitude of detail, and little time to relate it consciously to the underlying principles. To the casual onlooker taking into account the general social conditions of Indian Hfe, it hardly seems work which a woman should do, and yet it is work which must be done by women. Indian girls can only be well taught by women, and this necessitates a female Inspectorate at least for the upper grades. From 1908 to 191 1 there was only one Inspectress in the province, and in 1909 two assistant Inspectresses were appointed ; an additional appointment has, however, recently been made for the Chittagong and Surma Valley Districts. A further increase would greatly facilitate the development of the work, and would probably repay in efficiency the extra expense. There is a great deal written and said about the denationalizing influence of education, and the need for bringing our system into touch with Indian thought and Indian life. More especially in the present case, when a new policy is being shaped, there is need for flexibility in the system and an Inspectorate closely in touch with the inner side of Indian home-life. What should an Indian girl know ? What will fit her best to hold 96 Education of Women of India aright her true place ; what will render her happier and more intelligent, retaining her Sita-like devotion and her gentle bearing ? The planning of a curriculum and teacher's manual in relation to this aim is no easy task, and it remains to be seen whether the new manuals, the work of the first Inspectress, will have fulfilled these demands. Some women are born teachers, and some have teaching thrust upon them. In India the old ideal of teaching is that of a vocation ; the bread of life is given freely by those who have to those who have not. Modern conditions have of neces- sity modified this ideal to a certain extent, but its spirit is still needed. The great scarcity of women teachers, and consequent certainty of employment, tends to lower the standard of char- acter and efficiency. The teacher who will only do her own " kam," ^^ and not lend a helping hand to others, who is ever listening for the stroke of the clock, who is quick to take offence and ill to con- ciliate, is known in this province as elsewhere. The lack of a common religious basis as a ground of appeal is undoubtedly felt ; the estabhshment of Teacher's Associations in the urban centres, and, where possible, of the Young Women's Christian Association Teachers Union, might be useful. It is to be regretted that very few of the teachers are not drawn from the families of upper class ; the work done by one of the Mohammedan governesses in Dacca is an evidence of what can be accomplished in this way even without scientific 15 Work. " It is not my work " is a common excuse. Eastern Bengal and Assam 97 training. There are, however, some splendid Indian women teachers, contact with whom is an inspiration, and it is to be hoped that the influence of the training classes in the Eden High School at Nowgong and at Shillong may gradually raise the general tone. Here, as in Burma, is the great means of counteracting anglicizing influences ; education is the communication of personality, and the ideal Indian school of the future must have Indian teachers. The instilling of the principles of educational science and of true culture in Indian teachers, until these are no longer slavishly reproduced but lived and worked out in relation to Indian environment, is the task of the Western educator. The success of any policy depends upon how closely it is in touch with the spirit of the com- munity, and the wisdom of connecting a local committee with the management of every Middle and High school is unquestioned ; these Com- mittees are supposed to consist of equal numbers of men and women, and indeed the Government grant is often given only on condition of there being an efficient working Committee. There are also ladies' committees in connection with the zenana classes in the urban centres. It has, however, been exceedingly difficult to secure the necessary ladies for this work, for the supply of educated Indian ladies is very Hmited, and English women, because of the shortness of their stay in any one district, are unwilling to undertake it. Some of the officials' wives have, however, given 98 Education of Women of India splendid service in this way, and even if it is only a passing service it is more than worth while. The work of these committees in the breaking down of social prejudice and ensuring the con- fidence of the community is untold. There is, as has been already said, a definite connection between parda parties and school attendance. The parda party as a social institution in other provinces has come to stay. It is perhaps a pity that here it has had a certain shadow cast upon it of officialdom a.nd organization. The spontaneous and individual effort is quickly felt and appreci- ated by Indian ladies. It must come also from a genuine and mutual desire for intercourse and not from any sous-entendu motive of pity or " bridge the gulf " idea. Indian ladies have their own contribution to make to the unifying of ideals not only between Indian and English, but between Indian and Indian. " The less said about parda parties and the more held," is probably a wise dictum. The work on some of the educational sub-committees will, however, often give an English lady the direct contact with Indian life which is so much needed. The outlook for women's education throughout the province is in many respects a hopeful one ; enthusiasts are working at it, there is a steadily increasing flow of girls coming to the schools ; a teaching staff is gradually being built up, suit- able text-books and manuals are being produced. The generosity of a Government, hampered by finance in every way, to this scheme, is a stamp Eastern Bengal and Assam 99 of warm approval. No great social undertaking, however, is fulfilled in haste, and least of all where sympathy and the silent influence of individual friendship are needed to pave the way for it. V BENGAL " My Motherland, I sing Her splendid streams, her glorious trees. The zephyr from the far-off Vindyan heights, Her fields of waving corn. The rapturous radiance of her moonlit nights. The trees in flower that flame afar, The smiling days that sweetly vocal are. The happy, blessed Motherland." Translation by W. H. Lee, I.C.S. ONE of the subtlest problems of sociology is to trace the relation of cause and effect in new conditions of life affecting a community. Here in Bengal is a certain group of people calling themselves '* a new nation " ; here is a new thought-centre by turns indefinite, immature, bombastic, tentative, yet possessing a certain unity and aspiring after certain definite ideals, and together with it, in part as cause, in part as effect, is the steady educational advance of certain sections of the community. There is little geographical unity, for the term " Bengal " has been of varying content, comprising in the early days all the East India Company's pos- sessions in Northern India ; after 1836 a more 100 Bengal loi definite and limited area, and finally ^ in 1905 re- duced, broadly speaking, to Bihar, Chota Nagpore, Orissa and the section of Bengal proper which lies west of the Ganges and the Hooghly. Ethnically, a mixture of Dravidian, Mongolian and Aryan elements, even linguistic unity, is lacking, Bengali, Hindi, Bihari and Oriya, with their corresponding dialects being the languages mainly in use. Yet, in spite of all, the Bengali claim of unity is there in virtue of their education, and in virtue of the " high proportion of literacy that exists in Bengal compared with most parts of India." Linguistic- ally again, Bengali, though only the native tongue of some 52% 2 of the population, has become a modem literary language, and as such is a strong factor for unity and progress. It is true that those conscious of this unity who express them- selves variously in congresses, in journalism, in sedition, or in loyal Government service are doubtless a minority, but they are an increasing element, and one which may assert itself more in the future. The political side of this movement is beyond the scope of this book, its existence cannot, however, be ignored as it is one of the causes of the tide which is slowly setting in favour of the education of women. All the same obstacles and difficulties which we have studied in Eastern Bengal, and some even more hard to surmount, are to be found here. Seventy-eight per cent, of the popula- 1 C/. Note Chap. IV, p. 78. 2 Imperial Gazetteer of India — Volume Bengal. I02 Education of Women of India tion are Hindus and the consequent custom of marriage below the age of ten years cuts short the possible period of school attendance for girls. One woman in every five is a widow, and yet custom and prejudice prevent this numerous class from entering the teaching profession, as is the case with many spinsters at home. Ninety-four per cent, of the popula- tion live in scattered villages, and this increases the financial difficulty of providing • sufficient accessible schools for girls whose parents are unwilling and often unable to pay anything. A strong prejudice against the whole idea of the education of girls still exists, and though syste- matic efforts are made to overcome this, they often lead to no result, as is testified in the report of a Mohammedan gentleman of good position engaged by Government to popularize education among his co-religionists in Bihar. It often seems as if all effort to overcome this prejudice were imavailing. Yet in the face of all this there is a strong body of Indian opinion which emphasizes in speech and in the press the need and advisa- bility of female education. The Brahma-Samaj, one of the reform Indian sects much tinged by Christian thought, gives every opportunity of education to its women, and has thus an influence out of all proportion to its numbers ^ in the province. By the extremely orthodox Hindu it is looked upon with the same suspicion as Christi- anity, and yet its tenets of liberty and equality 2 Only 3 1 71 in the 1901 Census. Bengal 103 for womanhood have a direct bearing on the general par da conditions, especially in the cities, so that, while the overwhelming proportion of girls over twelve years of age in school is Christian or Brahma- Samaj, the influence of a new move- ment is beginning to make itself felt. Aq occasional Moslem girl, to whom a Government " stipend " has been awarded for her encourage- ment, is to be seen in the higher classes, or a young Hindu widow, who has been allowed to return to school to fit herself for a useful life. Historically this movement in the Indian com- munity is the result of the work of Christian missions, which have been consistently the leaders both in producing a high educational standard amongst the Christian women and in affording facilities to any others who would come to their schools. The Maharani of Baroda gives a fitting tribute in her recent book * to Miss Cook and Lady Amherst as the two pioneers of women's education in all India. Some share of this should also be given to Mrs Marshman, under whose instigation a society for the Education of Native Females was founded in Calcutta in 1819. In the same year the first modern girls' school in all India was opened under its auspices. By 182 1 thirty-two pupils were in attendance. Though the Baptists were the first to actually start instruction, a parallel movement had been made by a united committee of British and 4 Position of Women in Indian Life. Her Highness the Maharani of Baroda. Cf. also Chap. II, p. 36. 104 Education of Women of India Hindu men. This Calcutta School Society was founded in 1818 to advance the education of both boys and girls, and on its invitation Miss Cook left England to open a school for Hindu girls in Calcutta. The courage of the Hindu members of the committee, however, failed them when it came to the actual starting of the school. *' Although they had spoken well while yet the matter was at a distance and in the region of theory, they recoiled from the obloquy of so rude an assault on time-honoured custom. The Babus had been brought up to the talking-point, but not to the acting-point." ^ India thus lost the honour of a direct share in the first Western education of her women. Miss Cook was fortunately able to transfer her services to the Church Missionary Society, and opened her first school in 1822. The dramatic circumstances of this are worth quoting in full : 5— " Whilst engaged in studying the Bengali language, and scarcely daring to hope that an immediate opening for entering upon the work, to which she had devoted herself, would be found, Miss Cook paid a visit to one of the native schools for boys, in order to observe their pronunciation ; and this circumstance, trifling as it may appear, led to the opening of her first school in Thun- thuniya. Unaccustomed to see a European lady in that part of the native town, a crowd collected round the door of the school. Amongst them was an interesting looking girl, whom the school * Calcutta Review, 1855. Bengal 105 pandit drove away. Miss Cook desired the child to be called, and by an interpreter asked her if she wished to learn to read. She was told in reply that this child had for three months past been daily begging to learn to read with the boys, and that if Miss Cook (who had made known her purpose of devoting herself to the instruction of native girls) would attend next day, twenty girls should be collected. Accompanied by a female friend conversant with the language, she repeated her visit on the morrow and found fifteen girls, several of whom had their mothers with them. Their natural inquisitiveness prompted them to inquire what could be Miss Cook's motive for coming amongst them. They were told that she had heard in England that the women of their country were kept in total ignorance, that they were not taught to read or write, that the men only were allowed to attain any degree of know- ledge, and it was also generally understood that the chief obstacle to their improvement was that no females would undertake to teach them ; she had therefore felt compassion for them, and had left her coimtry, her parents, and friends to help them. The mothers with one voice cried out, smiting themselves with their right hands, ' Oh what a pearl of a woman is this ! ' It was added, ' she has given up every earthly expectation, to come here, and seeks not the riches of the world, but desires only to promote our best interests.' ' Our children are yours, we give them to you.' ' What will be the use of learning to our girls, and io6 Education of Women of India what good will it do to them ? ' They were told : — * It will make them more useful in their families, and increase their knowledge, and it was hoped that it would also tend to give them respect and produce harmony in their families/ — ' True,' said one of them, ' our husbands now look upon us as little better than brutes/ Another asked, ' What benefit will you derive from this work ? * She was told that the only return wished for was to promote their best interest and happiness. Then said the woman, ' I suppose this is a holy work, and well pleasing to God/ As they were not able to understand much, it was only said in return that God was always well pleased that His servants should do good to their fellow creatures. The women then spoke to each other in terms of the highest approbation of what had passed." In the course of 1822 eight schools were established, attended more or less regularly by 214 girls. The Marchioness of Hastings also created a deep impression by personally visiting many of the back alleys of the city, and during the last two years of her stay in India her enthusiasm did much to allay prejudice. In 1824 the Ladies' Society for Female Native Education was formed through the efforts of Miss Cook (now Mrs Wilson), and a handsome central school was erected, to which Indian gentlemen, notably Raja Buddinath Roy, con- tributed largely. Lady Amherst was the first President of the new society. Dr Duff, com- menting on the situation some twenty years later. Bengal 107 marks the wisdom of the middle course between the " impossible " and the " all things possible " party, the courage of those who were willing to begin with " here and there a few." While he held that the education of the men of India must precede the education of the women, on any great scale, he looked forward to the time when " there would be a wide and spontaneous demand for female education by thousands and ten thousands. Then indeed would dawn upon India the golden age of education." ^ It is a far cry from those days to the Calcutta of to-day with its seven High schools, five of which have college departments, its Training College, its Female Inspectorate, and a Government eager to do anything to promote what it regards as a main social factor in the development of the country. The " rising tide " may be best studied in comparative percentages. ^ As in Eastern Bengal, three forces are working here for the ^Address on Female Education in India, 1839, delivered by Dr Duff at the First Annual Meeting of the Scottish Ladies' Association. ' Percentage of girls of school age at school. 1881 . . . 0.87 1891 . . . 1.61 1901 . . .1.8 1910 ... 4.3 The total number of girls under instruction is now 171.569- Imperial Gazetteer. Bengal Public Instruction Report, 1910. io8 Education of Women of India 8. i u s u % H t I H Q B t3 CO M M ON . CO <3 M t;- O M 00 h 2 (d K u !^ z ■< 1 Q Z J3 1 o rt^ ! I I '-' I M i s u : : S " §8 High Schools . . . Middle— Enghsh .... Vernacular .... Primary .... Training .... 1 Bengal 1 09 education of women, the Government, spon- taneous Indian effort, and the missionary societies, and a brief analysis of these with their varying types and functions may serve to throw light on the general situation with its problems and possibilities. The Government system is a somewhat different one from that employed in the newer province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, and may be taken as the normal one in the various provinces of India. The work is directly under the Director of Public Instruction, and forms a separate section of the ordinary Educational Department. There are two In- spectresses, who are members of the Indian Educational Service, but a large proportion of the inspection in the country districts is of necessity done by the ordinary Inspectors. Eastern Bengal has here the advantage of newer and more plastic organization. The Government policy is rather to aid voluntary schools than to launch out on schemes of its own ; its influence is mostly felt as a unifying agency by means of Code, standard of examination and inspection, and els presenting occasionally model types to which the voluntary schools may or may not think it wise to conform. Thus less than one in twenty-eight of all girls' institutions are entirely under public management, as may be seen in the accompanying table. A slight divergence from this policy may, however, be noted in the increase of Primary schools directly under no Education of Women of India Government control from one in 1907 to eighty- six in 1910.S The Bethune Girls' College and High School, Calcutta, founded in 1849, ^^Y ^^ taken as a type of a model Government institution.^ Situated near Hadua Talau in the heart of the native city, like all city schools it suffers from lack of space. There is a fine pillared verandah through which one enters into an open court. Into this court open all the class-rooms. A characteristic feature is a very fine and spacious library well stocked with the classics of East and West. At the time of my visit several girls were sitting at work in it. A marked difference between Indian girls' High schools and those at home is that many of the former in the parda districts aim at having a College Department, which is affiliated to the University and in which girls are prepared up to the B.A. stage. The merits of this system will be discussed elsewhere. 1° In the Bethune College Department there are about thirty-five students, and in the school proper some one hundred and fifty, ranging in age from tiny girls of five or six to the Matriculation candidates of sixteen years and upwards. The lower classes are extremely crowded, and there is the falling off in the upper school which is so characteristic of India. This presents one of the most difficult problems in the education of Indian women. The aim being to fit the pupils for life, and to train them to think, 8 Imperial Gazetteer. ^ Cf. Chap. II, p. 36. 10 Cf. Chap. IX. Bengal 1 1 1 how can it possibly be accomplished in the three short years which in the majority of cases is all the time available ? In the High school proper the assumption is that the girls will stay on, and the Bethune curriculum is shaped accordingly. There is a good Kindergarten, and all the modern plant to make an efficient school ; the great drawback, as usual, is the lack of trained teachers, only one of the whole staff having full qualifica- tions. Indian music is well taught as an extra subject, and it was a pretty sight to see some half-dozen girls accompanying the harmonium with violin, escar, and zitta. The school owes its success to two factors, first the personality of its former Head-mistress, Miss Bose, the first woman graduate of the University of Calcutta, and secondly to the eagerness with which the Brahma Samaj welcomed this move on the part of the Government. The girls in the higher classes are practically all from the Brahma Samaj, so much so that perhaps this influence is almost too predominant. A little Moslem girl who had received a special Government " stipend " on account of her religion, had recently turned Brahmo, but the Head-mistress assured us that the change was due entirely to home influences. There is a good hostel in the school compound, for which there are always more applications than available vacancies, and arrangements are being made for the more complete separation of the school from the College department. The function of the Inspectress is important, 112 Education of Women of India and it is to be regretted that the word has come to suggest destructive rather than constructive criticism. " Training '* is a more accurate description of the work, and in a country where a large proportion of the teachers are untrained, it well repays the money spent thereon. A visit often means three days spent in a village helping the teacher to a more scientific system. Sugges- tions as to improvements in the Code ought to come from the Inspectress, and she has every opportunity for studying the conditions of the people and the suitability of the type of educa- tion offered. To consider the relative value of European and Indian Inspectresses is at the present moment of purely theoretical interest. However great the advantage of the Indian in intimate knowledge of the environment and of the mental characteristics of the people, it is difficult as yet to procure any with the necessary scientific qualifications and gift of organization. The difficulties of travel are also accentuated for the Indian woman. The contribution of Indian thought should be in the meantime rather in the building up of individual schools, with ultimate constructive influence on the system as a whole. The indigenous and spontaneous effort of the Indian community towards the education of their women is of two types, that of the Brahma Samaj and reform societies, and that of the orthodox sections. The former is very much in line with the general system : the Code is used, and where Bengal 113 alternative subjects are possible there is more emphasis laid on Sanskrit than in mission schools, but as a whole it is not strikingly " National/' The Brahma Girls' High School in Calcutta receives a monthly grant of five hundred Rupees and is a first class institution. Their Middle schools are mostly English in contrast to the vernacular mission schools. There are also a few Hindu Primary schools, which follow the Government Code. It is to the orthodox com- munities that we must turn to find the distinct- ively Indian note, the retention of which in any really educative scheme presents so baffling a problem. Here in the " Mahakali Pathshala " is a genuine Indian attempt at self-expression in educational ideals. This school was founded in 1S93, in Calcutta, by " Her Holiness Mataji Maharani Tapaswini," one of those strange women saints who flit across the pages of Indian history, freed by their mystical insight and rare wisdom from the shackles of ordinary Indian womanhood. Hither the dainty little Hindu maiden of the upper castes is brought in a closed gari with her hands full of marigolds and other blossoms, to learn that school is but a larger home where the mysteries and ritual of worship will become clear to her, where she too will lisp the monotonous chant to the glory of the gods, and sink her baby soul in meditation. True, there is a printed curriculum on the wall, which says that Sanskrit, Bengali, Moral Text Books and Arithmetic are to be studied in six classes, but what matter ! The effort which 1 14 Education of Women of India these subjects entail is ever and anon relieved by worship, and by the cooking which is part of worship. Then there is the picture of Saraswati Devi,ii on whom " as the Wonder of all Wisdom one meditateth in the third watch of the night," and three hundred babies ranging from three to eight years of age will daily sway their little bodies before her in the morning puja^^ What musical drill is in the Kindergarten so is puja to the Patshala pupils. There is a special prize for the best performer of puja — a sari and a silver pin for every little Kumari ^^ who has honoured the school with her presence. The teachers are mostly elderly pandits, to whom the visit of the Inspectress indicates the desire of Government not to improve them, but to copy their most excellent methods in the Government schools ! Regarded from a Western point of view the education is nil ; the children can hardly read and write their own language,, geography and arithmetic are practically absent, and there is no attempt to develop the mental faculties ; from the point of view of the orthodox Hindu, however, it is probably ideal ; the girls have ** the ancient and sacred lore of their country infused into them and their lives are modelled after the ideal Hindu female char- acters of old." Herein lies the real value to the student of education : there is no gulf between 11 The Goddess of Learning. On her festival, students will pile their books and inkpots before the shrines in their colleges for special blessing. 12 Worship. ^3 Lady, a title of respect. Bengal 115 school and home, and the child's own environment and its hereditary instincts are utilized as a basis, but the trouble is that no superstructure is built thereon. Elsewhere we have superstructure but no basis. The school has no grant, no fees are paid, and the support is entirely obtained from subscriptions from the Hindu community. Extensively the influence of these schools is not great. There are nominally twenty- three branch schools in Bengal and Eastern Bengal, but a branch notified in the report is not always found to be in existence. That there is life in the move- ment is seen by the fact that the present Head, the Srimati Mataji, undertook a tour in the Mofussil and districts to organize branches. " She was everywhere well received, and there was evident sense of relief and sympathy of the public in the cause of female education under the Mahakali system." 1* To behold orthodox Hinduism sending a woman on tour in the interests of education is indeed to realise the Renaissance of the East ! But " relief " from what ? Is it from the non-religious character of the Government system ? The third and most potent factor in the educa- tional situation is the missionary one. As this was the first in the field one would expect their work to be more highly developed, and it must also be remembered that the Brahma Samaj is an indirect fruit of the leavening of Christian educa- tion. The doctrine of equal opportunity for man ^* Report of the Mahakali Patshala. 1 16 Education of Women of India and woman is seen at work in the comparative religious statistics of girls at school. Primary . 5,360 Indian Christians to 126,897 Non- Christians. Middle . 1,382 Indian Christians to 1,430 Non- Christians. High . 448 Indian Christians to 667 Non- Christians. As the returns of the Bengal censuses show only 319,384 Christians in a total population of 52,668,269, these figures referring to their daughters' education are striking. The aim of Christian education is twofold, the building up of the Christian community so that ultimately the Indian Church may be a strong social factor, and the education of non-Christians with a view to influencing them either directly or indirectly in favour of Christianity. These two aims are com- bined in most mission work except in the case of most of the girls' Boarding schools where a non- Christian girl is naturally the exception. Of the eleven High schools for Indian girls in the Province, six are under mission management and two varying types may be noticed. The Diocesan High school — a Government-aided institution for girls under the management of the Clewer Sisters, has the reputation of being the best girls' school in Calcutta. The reason for this is easy to discover in the personality of its Principal, Sister Mary Victoria, whose aristocratic idealism (if the words may be combined) determines the tone of 15 191 1 Census. Statistical Abstract of British India. Bengal 117 the whole school. In India the personal element counts for everything, and without it, the best of institutions and Government plans are unavailing. Sister Mary Victoria and her English staff are constantly with the girls and when the school was first started they took their meals with the boarders until a tradition of manners was estab- lished. The school is well staffed with trained teachers both English and Indian, the former predominating. An English lady also who is interested in the school comes regularly to teach brushwork. There is an excellent College De- partment. The Government curriculum is followed, and in addition systematic religious instruction is given to all pupils. The ideal of this school is not, however, success in examina- tions only and their shadow does not lie heavily. As a small pupil remarked to the writer : " There are lots of girls in our school who don't love examinations, but who do love school." The pupils are drawn from various ranks and creeds ; the boarders are mostly Christian, and the majority of the day scholars Hindu and Brahma. The leading Indian families in Calcutta send their girls here, and to the Loretto Convent ,1^ rather than to the Bethune School because of the personal contact with English ladies. The daily religious lesson is not felt as a deterrent in any way. It is curious to watch these girls drive up to the school in handsome carriages and to realize that they 1^ A school under the English Code, where only 15 per cent, of the pupils may be of Indian parentage. 1 1 8 Education of Women of India are only paying two shillings and eight pence a month for a really first class education. Many of the richer parents give donations as well, but the fee is kept low for the sake of the poorer. These fees and the Government grant practically cover the working expenses of the school apart from the support of the English staff. There are no separate schools for the wealthier classes worked on a system of full payment, partly because poverty is not so much a cause of separa- tion in India as in Britain and partly because there is not a sufficient number of girls ready for higher education who could and would pay fees that would cover expenses. Taken as a whole the fees in mission schools are higher than in Government institutions. Of a somewhat different and more usual type is the United Free Church High school, it exists almost entirely for the girls of this and other mis- sions who enter it as boarders from the country ; the school is thus predominantly Christian and has little contact with Indian life. Of 122 scholars about 90 are boarders, and accommodation is being built for more. The day scholars are mostly in the lower classes. The education given is ex- ceedingly thorough, and if the whole curriculum ending with a teachers' diploma is taken it ensures a girl a good post either in Government or mission service. There is no College Department, but a special feature since 1889 is the excellent Normal course from which most satisfactory results have been obtained. Miss Wh5^e may be rightly Bengal 119 considered the pioneer of efficient training for teachers in Bengal. The Government curriculum is followed, and in addition the customary BibHcal instruction is given. The school suffers from two drawbacks customary to all of its type, the lack of space and the " Westernization " of the pupils. Situated in one of the most crowded parts of the city, the buildings resemble a huge bee-hive packed with class rooms and dormitories and redeemed only by the glorious flat roof so characteristic of life in Calcutta. Below is a pathetically small playground where the boarders walk or read or play, in so far as the latter is natural to Indian girls. A splendid effort has been made by the staff to bring the girls into contact with nature and the historic monuments of India in order to counteract the cramping influence of the surroundings. One year a large party of teachers and former and present pupils visited Agra and Delhi, the wonder and glory of which opened a new field of thought and imagina- tion to the Bengali girls. Another year the whole school was transferred for a short time to Deoghur. The material obtained on these expeditions served as a basis for nature study throughout the term. The students and elder girls are also taken once a year for a short mission tour, which serves not only to enlarge their horizon, but also emphasizes the primary purpose of the school. In spite, however, of the energy and originality of the staff in organizing these expeditions, the atmosphere of the school remains very much that of an I20 Education of Women of India ordinary secondary school in Scotland and has no distinctively Indian note. " Atmosphere " and curriculum are mutually dependent and their relationship is a problem that does not affect mission schools only. As a whole the mission High schools are doing a splendid work and their growing influence in the community is to be noted in the fact that occasionally Brahma-Samaj and even Hindu girls are found amongst their boarders. The Middle schools, teaching up to Standard v., have adopted the sound policy of excluding English, the object being to give a sound vernacular training to such children as will never have the chance of getting High school education. "It is these schools which supply the bulk of pupils to our training-schools for mis- tresses, and as such their importance in our system of female education in this country is very great." ^^ The strong point of the mission schools, both Middle and Primary, is that they are under the direct and constant supervision of European workers. In one mission visited, all the Indian teachers were Christians and had had Normal training, and the schools were constantly visited by a lady holding the highest educational certificates. This is not the case everywhere, but it is the ideal aimed at. A mission Primary school is a pleasant place full of promise and of future possibilities. Shadow and sunshine are mingled, but on the whole the sunshine predominates. Take for example one in the vicinity of Calcutta 1^ Bengal Public Instruction Report, 1910. o o u m c o 3 u 3 o 75 CJ 3 o Bengal 1 2 1 — an old one-storied dwelling-house off a village lane, which skill has converted into a passable four-roomed school, with a sandy patch of ground used for drill and occasional geography lessons. There are about 120 children from five to eight years of age, the infant department is evidently looked upon as a sort of creche by the village, for there are eighty babies sitting in solemn rows on the matting, but as soon as a girl becomes useful or marriageable she is withdrawn. Pre- siding over this happy family are three white- saried Christian girls, only one of whom has been trained as a teacher. The girl with the eighty pupils has only been as far as Standard III. herself ; she is however making a loyal effort ; the babies pass their wooden boards with very tidy hieroglyphics for inspection, but the impos- siblity of it all makes one wonder if a Government grant is wisely given. The Head-mistress lends a kindly eye, but her attention is centred on Standard III. with its five select girls ; this is the last year of Christian influences and these girls are being taught something not in the Government Code. They are bright and intel- ligent and the short Scripture lesson is enlivened by plenty of question and answer. Once a fortnight or once a week the school will be visited by an English lady, who will plan, supervise and if needful, give a model lesson. She has eight schools of this type under her personal super- intendence, and her visits are the pivot on which they turn. A good Government grant is given ; 122 Education of Women of India the Code for vernacular Primary schools is followed, and as there is no competition the work is warmly welcomed by the Hindu community. The mission Primary schools hold their own in the educational system ; of thirty-eight money prizes given by Government to Calcutta girls* Primary schools, all but three were won by mission pupili. The special characteristics of the mis- sionary contribution to the educational problem, as a whole, are the presence of fully qualified European workers, who enter the educational sphere at salaries which no Goverimient servant would accept, and the development of Normal work on scientific principles. This review of the three agencies at work leads to the general consideration of some of the main problems which underlie the types and organiza- tion described, and which affect the educational outlook ; the supply of teachers, the character of Secondary education, the development of Primary education and the co-ordination of the whole. The most crucial is undoubtedly that concerning the teacher. The school career of the Bengali girl is limited at present in the large majority of cases to only four or five years, and there is thus no time for the teacher to waste. If education is to commend itself at all to the real India (as distinct from ** Babudom ") it must be of the very best type. The Government realize this and are putting forth every effort to procure trained teachers, but whence are the students to be obtained, and who Bengal 123 is to train them ? The unquestioned future for every Hindu and Moslem girl is matrimony and it is therefore only from amongst those who have been widowed in childhood that teachers can be drawn. But in spite of all that has been written and said on this subject the necessary education is still denied to them, by religion, custom, and prejudice. In the Hindu Female Training School in Calcutta, started by Government to sur- mount some of the initial prejudice in regard to the training of " parda-nashin " women, there are only seven pupils. They are all widows of above sixteen years and though they are not admitted unless, when children, they have been through the fourth standard, their brains have remained fallow for six years and the problem of their training is a difficult one. In the only other Government institution for non-Christians there are at present thirteen Moslems and nine Hindus, and many of them have to be taught reading and writing as well as the art of teaching. It will thus be seen that though the ultimate solution of the dearth of teachers may be found in the utilization of the young widows, public opinion will have to undergo a considerable change before it is possible. ^^ From the Brahma-Samaj community more is to be expected, and though the Brahma-Samaj Training Class in Calcutta is not at present in a flourishing condition, they certainly contribute a fair proportion of teachers. It is, however, from the Christian community that 18 Cf. Chap. VIII. 1 24 Education of Women of India the teachers are chiefly drawn, and efforts are being made to secure their efficient training. Of the sixteen Training Institutions in Bengal thirteen are under mission management, and of 192 Indian pupils, 175 are Christian. A whole- some sign of the growing spirit of unity is the amalgamation of the training classes of four missions in Calcutta into one Christian Normal Training College with an excellent staff and a good modern equipment. So far it is only for mistresses who are to teach in the vernacular. Even with the large contribution of Christian teachers, the demand immensely exceeds the supply. Even before her examination there is hardly one of the candidates who has not secured a good post. They are in demand in the first instance for mission schools, in Brahma-Samaj and non-sectarian institutions, and in Hindu and Model Primary schools. " The fact that they are Christians in a large number of cases is not considered a bar to their employment." ^^ The inference for missionary societies is obvious — that to supply all the girls' schools of Bengal with teachers of strong Christian character would contribute much to the coming of the Kingdom of God. As regards the type of training given, the drawback is the fact that, like the Code, it is too Western. A solution may probably be found if the British educators are allowed to supple- ment their home-training by further studies on the spot, before undertaking work — a slower 13 Inspectress's Report. Bengal 1 25 process but a surer one. Secondary training is yet to be developed both by missions and by Government. One Indian teacher has taken her degree of Bachelor of Teaching from a Mission school, but this is an isolated instance. The relation of the statistics of Higher educa- tion to Primary is striking ; only 11 % of the girls at school are beyond the stage of just being able to read and write, while only 319 girls in the whole province are beyond the Middle stage. An immediate question is, How to retain the girls in the higher classes. Social and religious considera- tions weigh heavily here, as in the problem of the supply of teachers, but another influence may be, as elsewhere, the nature of the curriculum. This question has underlain much of the previous discussion, and is wide and far reaching in its scope. Indian education must have its own " Paradise " ; the acme of Western civilization ought not to be reproduced in India, if diversity and not uniformity is the higher law. There is something lacking if the Mahakali committee speak of a " feeling of relief " in an escape from Government education, and some compromise is surely possible between their system and that of the Anglicized Boarding School. Destructive criticism is easy and there is plenty of it in Indian educational circles. On the one hand, the mission authorities say that they are bound by the hard and fast rules of the Code which conditions their grant, on the other, there is a great deal more liberality and elasticity in the Government policy 126 Education of Women of India than is commonly imagined, and a really well thought out curriculum on new lines would probably not mean the forfeiture of a grant. It is true that schools which vary from the type recognized at home are not aided by Government, but the Indian situation is different and it is probably for the good of the whole system that they should be under Government supervision and receive the impetus which comes from sharing in the educational scheme. Here is the opportunity for private enterprise and initiative ; with co-operation on the part of the missionary societies in Calcutta it would surely be possible to remove one of their girls' High schools to the country and to give a practical demonstration of what modern education on Indian lines might mean. This would be no easy task and could only be accomplished by a staff who had inti- mately studied the conditions of Indian life and thought. This would be the most effectual " constructive criticism." The extension of Primary education is a crucial problem throughout India ; here in Bengal 95 % of girls of school age are absolutely outside the educational pale. The wonder is, considering the inveterate indifference of the majority of parents and guardians to female education, even when it is freely given, that any progress is made at all. On the one hand there is the question whether it is advisable to encourage it too warmly, when the available supply of trained teachers is so dis- proportioned to the need ; on the other, the Bengal 127 multiplication of schools and the acceptance of female education by public opinion would create a condition more favourable to the ready supply of teachers. The new Code for Primary schools introduced in 19 10, which is in accord with modern educational principles, may prove more attractive than the former. Finance is an important matter. Many villages are too poor to maintain separate pathshalas for their daughters ; there are at present 69,000 girls in boys' Primary schools as against 75,000 in Primary schools for girls only. The result is that in these villages the stricter castes do not send their girls to school and even the others are withdrawn after the infant stage. In the Second- ary schools in the cities many girls who can well afford to pay are enjoying a first-class education for two shillings and eightpence a month at the expense of Government and missionary societies. This looks as if a re-adjustment of funds might increase the Primary statistics. Here again is an unlimited sphere for private enterprise ; the mission school for girls only, staffed by Indian women teachers under European supervision is welcome and sure of success. The system of Zenana teaching both by missionaries and Govern- ment teachers is, as in Eastern Bengal, of great use in breaking down prejudice, and though apparently slow and costly work, it is invaluable. It might possibly prove to be for the good of the whole system if some small central Board or consultative committee were formed to promote 128 Education of Women of India co-operation in the development of future plans between the Government and the various private enterprises. The future of female education in Bengal is partly a question of administration, partly that of a greater number of European educators in sympathy with the genius of the country, partly that of a reformed curriculum, but more funda- mentally it is a question of religious evolution. VI INTERESTING INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES AND PANJAB " The world exists in order to grow souls under the eyes of a patient, tireless, yearning Teacher." From Hindustan Review. IT is not proposed to give in this chapter a detailed account of general organization and of the forces at work. There is a de- finite similarity in the system of administration throughout all India, though it varies in its adaptation to indigenous institutions : one policy underlies missionary efforts, though they differ remarkably in the personal factor ; the new Indian spirit is everywhere more or less articulate. But it is worth while to lay emphasis on certain phases of the problem of female education in the United Provinces, and on certain institu- tions in the Panjab which are typical of the complexity of the situation, or present unique characteristics. In the Quinquennial Survey the United Pro- vinces occupy an unsatisfactory position at the bottom of the list of comparative percentages, showing only 1.2 per cent, of girls of school -going age at school. This percentage has, however, risen I 129 130 Education of Women of India in 1910 to 1.33, and the total number of institu- tions has increased from 1,067 ^^ 1,266 — a credit- able advance in the face of the difficulties to be encountered. The " impatient idealist " must beware, however, of extravagant hopes of trans- formation in a country where progress must of necessity be slow and of an evolutionary nature. Under more stringent inspection and regulation, the rapid advance in the early part of the decade has proved to a certain extent fictitious, and due to an over-hasty desire on the part of the educa- tional authorities to move with the times. Local committees had apparently started schools for which there was no demand and for which they were unable to procure teachers. One Inspectress reports that in some cases, on a surprise visit, no teacher was found at all ; in others, though the teachers were present, no work was being done.^ Artificial efforts to hasten the pace were attended only by a spurious success ; for example, a capitation grant of four annas a month was given in 1906 for every girl attending a boys' school, with a resulting increase of 4000 in the statistics of attendance ; but a careful inspection and subsequent removal of the grant proved that the girls had simply been procured to sit in the schoolroom without receiving any attention, and that they left in a year or two as ignorant as when they entered it. Quite possibly some of the annas had found their way into the pockets of the parents who had been so obliging as to lend * Public Instruction Report, United Provinces, 19 10. Interesting Institutions 131 their girls. The latest statistics show a drop of 3000 in the total number of female scholars, but this is entirely among the girls attending boys' schools, and is due to the more efficient adminis- tration. The slight increase in the Secondary schools and in the girls' Primary schools is a sign of genuine progress and may be welcomed as such. The policy of the Government is one of slow advance after careful investigation and en- listment of local co-operation. About the year 1907, every District Officer was instructed to form a special committee to watch over the in- terests of girls' education in his district, and some of these committees have done excellent work, while others have been baffled by the difficulties to be faced and by lack of funds. Others, again, as indicated above, have tended to make haste too quickly. The fact that Indian non-Christian men of good social position have been found willing to serve on these committees is an indication of general advance and of growing sympathy with every effort for enlightenment and reform. 2 As regards Inspectresses, the United Provinces are better staffed at present than any other province excepting possibly Madras, and yet the overwork is no less, for the districts are very large, and in many cases the schools are quite inaccessible to the woman traveller. But in a country where par da is strict, and where registers ' Cf. Young India and the Education of Girls, E. R. M'Neile (C.M.S.). 132 Education of Women of India may only represent fictitious girls, and where moreover the work of the Inspectress is much needed for the stimulus and sympathy she can give, the system well repays the necessary expense, and will probably admit of yet further expansion. An effort is also being made to secure voluntary co-operation on the part of both English and Indian ladies who are willing and able to help. One Indian lady has given a great deal of her time to the inspection of the Government Primary schools in her district ; another lady, a missionary with exceptional qualifications, is secretary of a local educational committee. Table of Schools for Indian Girls in the United Provinces. 3 Under Public Manage ME NT. Under Man AC Private EMENT. Government. Zen < i ."2 (d a High Schools . •• • • •• 6 Middle- English . I 18 4 Vernacular •• • • •• 7 .. Primary . 57 355 •• 499 17 Training Schools I •• •• 7 3 58 356 •• 537 24 3 Formed from Statistical Tables III and III A. in Public Instruction Report for United Provinces, 1910. Interesting Institutions 133 The problem of finding teachers is even more acute here than elsewhere. It seems hardly credible that a teacher could be found in regular employment who was unable to write words of three letters to dictation, yet such is a recorded fact. Her ignorance had been concealed by a memorized knowledge of the Koran. Of sixty- two Primary schools sanctioned by Government in 1909 it has only been possible to open twenty- one because of the entire lack of teachers with even the minimum of qualification. There are two lines of spontaneous Indian effort : the Arya Samaj, whose schools conform to the Government Code and regulations, and neo- Hinduism,^ which has produced Mrs Besant's school for Indian girls at Benares. The Arya Samaj have a good training-school for teachers at Dehra Dun, students from which may be found teaching in their schools in other parts of India. A High-school department has recently been added to it, and every effort is being put forth to make it a strong educational centre. The school at Benares is in connexion with the Hindu Central College, and poses as a definite revolt from the anglicizing tendency of Government and mission schools. It receives no grant, and as yet has not even applied for inspection. The Government is considered to ** favour Christian and mission schools," and therefore, though there is the same lack of funds here as elsewhere, the promoters will have none of it or its money ! Freedom to ^ C/. The Renaissance in India, C. F. Andrews. 1 34 Education of Women of India shape their own curriculum is also a dominant motive. To enter the school and see over a hundred beautifully dressed Indian girls, almost all of the Brahman caste, sitting in groups of six or seven, on bright carpets, the class-rooms well separated in the spacious airy building, was certainly to feel that here one might find a solu- tion of the curriculum problem and a construc- tive theory of Indian education. ** A training in conduct and religion is what Indians, as a rule, value most for their women — the work for those going beyond the rudiments is too bookish in character." ^ Here the teachers are free to saturate the instruction throughout with the ethical elements of a religion acceptable to the parents, to edit their own text -books, to emphasize the study of the vernaculars and Indian classics without the strain of examinations. The pupils stay longer than in other schools : many " married " girls of fifteen and sixteen years are in the upper forms. One particularly bright child of fourteen told us she was to be there for four years while her husband studied in England. Thus there is time really to influence the character and mind of the girls. Yet, on analysis, from the purely educational point of view the school was distinctly disappointing. As regards the staff, the Head-mistress, an English lady, claimed no knowledge of the vernacular, and though her intercourse with the girls seemed most cordial and sympathetic, it was necessarily limited, and ^ Public Instruction Report, United Provinces, p. 34. Interesting Institutions 135 still more limited was her knowledge of their studies. An American with the degree of B.Sc, a Brahman, wife of one of the College professors, who had been educated in a convent, three mission-taught girls, and sundry other teachers of a nondescript character, completed the number. English was taught throughout, from class III. upwards, and used as a medium of instruction in classes VI. and VII., but the degree of fluency of the girls therein seemed hardly to justify this method. Many of the ordinary text-books were in use, and except for the moral catechisms and some stress laid on Indian art and Hinduism in the drawing lessons, the difference of the cur- riculum seemed more theoretical than actual. The theories are, however, suggestive, and when traced to the basal thought that education must be founded on the hereditary instinct and natural environment of the child they are not in reality revolutionary but compatible with the construc- tive system and ideals of the Christian religion. The Crosthwaite High School at Allahabad shows possibilities of a different nature. It was started privately in Lucknow city some eighteen years ago by a committee of Indian gentlemen and Government officials, and was afterwards removed for the sake of a larger site and fresher air. A long, low, roomy building, with deep verandahs, forms the central school, with two hostels attached to it, in one of which twenty Moslem girls were residing, in the other six Hindus. A considerable number of day pupils, 136 Education of Women of India without restriction as to creed, are drawn from Allahabad. Tuition and conveyance for day pupils are given free, but the charge for boarders meets the cost. The Government Code is followed throughout, and the knowledge of English, tested by recitation and questioning on subject-matter, seemed of a thorough quality. The school illustrated in miniature most of the usual problems. It was marVellous that Moslem girls of really good family should have been allowed to come to a boarding-school, some from far distant States, and there was a certain pathos in the sight of them being taught by any kind of woman who had " learnt to read and write at home," and who in some cases might almost have been their ayah. This description applies only to the lower forms, but in these classes girls are at the most formative age, and many would not stay for the whole course. One teacher of this type was actually engaged in nursing her baby while giving an arithmetic lesson, and one wondered which of the two suffered more — the lesson or the baby ! The Head-mistress was a young Indian Christian graduate from the Isabella Thoburn College, full of energy and enthusiasm for what seemed so difficult a task. She herself had to take three lessons a day, which left little leisure for the superintendence of the lower school with its double vernacular (Hindi and Urdu) standards throughout. A similar position in a school at home would have been occupied by a much older woman with many o c o 'o o C/5 Interesting Institutions 137 years' experience of life. A question as to the religious teaching given elicited the following reply : " The Mohammedan teacher has her own girls ; I teach the few Christians, and the Hindus look after their own bathings I " There is no question here of Indianizing the curriculum. In turning to the specifically Christian institu- tions, it has again to be noted that the missionaries have been the pioneers of education, that an over- whelming proportion of the aided schools are under their management, and that a creditable proportion of Christian girls in the High stages (552 out of 759 Indian girls) is maintained. No account of women's education in India would be complete without a full description of the Isabella Thobum College, or, as it is called throughout the Northern provinces, the " Lai Bagh " (Rose Garden). From a tiny beginning in 1870 as a bazaar school in Lucknow, with half a dozen Christian girls, it has grown by successive stages to a splendidly equipped collegiate institution, the portals of which may be entered by a child as a tiny " rosebud " for the Kindergarten, and from whence the full-blown B.A. may emerge some sixteen years later. The College and its latest additions stand as a memorial to two strong personalities, Isabella Thoburn, the founder, and Lilavati Singh, whose early death in 1909, when Vice-Principal of the College, removed one of the Indian leaders of women's education. The ideals after which they strove and the spirit of passionate sacrifice for others which dominated their lives 138 Education of Women of India form a strong tradition in the school. The American sense of community life which enters so markedly into their schools and colleges has been transferred with wise adaptation to the Indian environment ; and the former pupils of the " Lai Bagh," scattered throughout India, are still under the glamour of their school days and are working out its inspiration. Self-government in all that regards the common interest is the rule of the College and Normal departments, and the same principle is being slowly established in the High school in the hope of developing the sense of responsibility so greatly needed in the Indian character. The girls are practically all Christian, but occasionally a non-Christian girl is found taking advantage of the splendid education which she could obtain nowhere else. The Zenana school, opened in 1909, is attended by some Hindu and Mohammedan girls desirous of a simple course with domestic science, and it is expected that this department will gradually increase. There is also a special hostel for Hindu or Mohammedan girls which has not yet been much utilized. The staff consists of seven or eight American graduates and about fifteen Indian teachers, some of whom are graduates also. There are no untrained teachers. This proportion in a school of some 200 pupils, and a College and Normal department of about 40, is refreshing after other institutions, but it in no way satisfies the standard of efficiency aimed at by the directors. The Normal department is of special Interesting Institutions 139 importance, as teachers are supplied from it to all parts of Northern India. No student is admitted to the senior course who has not passed the Matriculation or equivalent examination, and the Government Report testifies to the thorough- ness of the training given. A lower qualification is accepted for the Kindergarten course. The Government Code is followed throughout, and there is thus no question of an experimental curriculum on Indian lines. The College is under a Board of Directors which includes two prominent Indian gentlemen, and is in connexion with the American Methodist Mission. The Church Missionary Society has an excellent boarding-school for Christian girls at Benares with about 100 pupils. The central schools for the Christian community form a very important part of the work of any mission, and it is entirely due to them that the creditable percentage of Christian girls in the Secondary stages is main- tained. Where a Normal department can be added, their influence on the non-Christian com- munity and on the general educational situation is very marked. Unfortunately some mission committees have still a tendency to appoint a pupil to a post too soon, and the numbers are not as large as they might be. The Benares class has at present nine students who entered it with Middle Anglo- Vernacular qualifications ; its special feature, in addition to the ordinary subjects, is an experimental attempt to give some concep- tion of the Hindu environment of religious 140 Education of Women of India thought to the students. The Indian Christian of the second or third generation tends to be totally isolated in idea and thought from other Indians, and this tendency is often accentuated in mission schools. It is therefore exceedingly important that those who are to influence Hindu life as teachers in mission or Government schools should, in the course of their training, form some clear and correct conception of the religious en- vironment of their future pupils. Experimental work of this type should prove most useful in any future developments of Normal training which missionary societies may be contemplating. There is throughout a pleasant spirit of co- operation between the various educational mis- sionaries, and between them and the Government authorities. There is a Missionary Educational Union for the Province which the Inspectresses attend officially. An annual Teachers' Confer- ence is held in February, and it is probable that in the future co-operation may pass from theory to actual fact in the development of further work. A striking lack in the missionary contribution is the absence of any school of really first-class character for non-Christian girls, such as exist in Bombay and Calcutta. The educational work for boys has been fully developed, but the parallel opportunity for girls which the changing times have created has yet to be seized. It may be argued that the Isabella Thoburn school has arrangements for non-Christian girls, but even in these changing times there are few non-Christians Interesting Institutions 141 who would be willing to risk their daughters in a boarding-school among such an overwhelming number of Christian girls, whereas first-class schools starting fresh with no tradition would be sufficiently in touch with the new movement to attract pupils by their sheer efficiency. In this direction and in the training of teachers the standard must be set by the missionary authorities if their reputation as pioneers is to be maintained. The situation in the Panjab differs again only in degree. While there has been no ebb in the increasing tide of pupils — an increase of 1328 in 1909, and of 3732 in 1910, making a present total of over 42,000 girls under instruction — the problem of administration and inspection in a strictly parda country is as difficult as elsewhere, and there are stories of the inefficiency of the teachers which surpass even those told of other provinces. The municipalities vary greatly in their enthusiasm for the education of girls — Amritsar, for instance, being well supplied with thirty-five girls' schools, whereas Lahore has only one of this type. The missions have as elsewhere the system of boarding- schools for Christian girls, and carry on extensive work, chiefly of a Primary nature, among non- Christians of all races and creeds. Occasionally a non-Christian girl is found in a Christian boarding-school. Some of these schools are specially commended by the Inspectress for their teaching in domestic economy and sewing. " The Sialkot boarding-school divides the children into families of twelve girls who each do their own 142 Education of Women of India cooking, washing, and housework, even the Httle ones helping." ^ St Stephen's Girls' School (S. P. G.) has a special lace department where any girl who wishes to learn English may earn the money to pay the requisite fee. The lace produced is of a marketable quality, and not of the type which passes from bazaar to bazaar in Great Britain. The work of the Kinnaird Girls' High School, Lahore, is similar to that of the Bombay school ^ under the auspices of the same society (Z. B. M. M.). It is intended mainly for Indian Christian girls, but contains a certain pro- portion of others. The average age of leaving is about sixteen. Its training class is of special interest. Women students in the Panjab are allowed to take the Junior Anglo-Vernacular training after matriculation, though, in the case of men the same examination is open only to graduates. In spite of this the girls generally stand fairly high in the lists, one of them recently taking the second place. The class, however, averages only some five students, though the school has over 160 girls. There is another excellent High school for Indian non-Christian girls in Lahore under the superintendence of an Indian Christian lady. Here, too, slowly but surely, the voice of Young India is making itself heard in a new desire and a new effort. Lawyers, doctors, Government servants, are seeking for their wives and daughters ^ Public Instruction Report, Panjab, 1910. ' Cf. p. 178. Interesting Institutions 143 an education which, if not equal to their own, will a least be a sufficient compromise between the old status and the new ideas to which they give utterance from public platforms and in the press. The reform sects, notably the Arya Samaj, are ready with a definite educational policy of their own. They have a special orphanage at Feroze- pore, and a considerable number of schools ; the Dev Samaj, a new rallying-point, has two or more schools ; there is a Sikh boarding-school near Amritsar ; and, " in opposition to these reforming Hindu societies, at least one orthodox Hindu girls' school has been opened lately. Whether the activity of the reformers will force the ortho- dox Hindus to take an interest in girls' education and to start a network of schools in opposition remains to be seen." ^ The Maharani of Burdwar is noted for her efforts in this direction, and her schools, the Vedic Putri Pathshala and the Khatri Girls' School at Lahore, both aim at having High departments. Absolutely unique in its aim, management, and curriculum is the Victoria May Girls' High School, Lahore, now known as Queen Mary College. The idea of establishing a High school for Indian girls of good family was put forward by certain Indian ladies at the par da party held in honour of the visit of the then Princess of Wales in November 1905, and the possibility of putting this proposal into effect was 8 Female Education in North India. East and West, January 191 1. M. P. Western, Principal, Victoria May School. 144 Education of Women of India attained by the munificence of certain leading Native States in the Panjab. The school is under the management of five leading Indian gentlemen representing different creeds, and of two of the highest officials in the Province. Its curriculum is, so far as the writer's experience extends, the only one in which a definite constructive theory has been put forth for the education of Indian girls on such lines as combine excellent modern education with training suitable to their future environment.^ Its ideals are defined in the following extract from the prospectus. " The proposed education is to be first and foremost womanly, therefore pupils will not be prepared for Matriculation until alternative courses of study suitable for girls be framed by the Educa- tion Department. The Indian ideals of self- sacrificing motherhood and simplicity of life will be held sacred, and the education given, while conducted on the best modem methods, seeks in every way to guard the ideal of the Indian wife in her home. For this reason the curriculum includes lessons on the care of children's health, simple remedies for ordinary illnesses, ' first aid,' invalid cookery, and science as applied to the home, in the shape of the elementary laws of sanitation, ventilation, etc." Great attention is paid to the vernaculars and to the beautiful ^ The prospectus of the Conjeevaram School (South India) presents several unique features. The Hindus consider it their best school. A visit was, unfortu- nately, impossible. Interesting Institutions 145 Oriental scripts. Advanced pupils may study Persian or Sanskrit. A speciality is made of colloquial English, but there is no study of it as advanced literature. Moral instruction is given from the beautiful stories and poems of all religions, no sacred book being excluded, and is as effective as can be in an institution necessarily limited in its religious life and instruction. A great effort is being made to attract pupils from the families whose sons attend the Chiefs' College in Lahore ; six or eight special suites of rooms are being reserved for rajahs' daughters and their necessary attendants, in new buildings attached to the Principal's house, and such facilities may do much to break down the barrier which has hitherto separated these classes from modern education. This school may serve not only as an inspiration to its actual pupils, but may have a reflex influence on the whole scheme of education. For instance, a course of lectures has recently been started in connection with it to demonstrate to Indian ladies the real needs of local girls' schools, and to induce them to act where pos- sible as helpers and advisers. To turn what has hitherto proved an obstructive force into a defi- nitely constructive one would surely be an excellent policy. The Land of the Five Rivers has ever been a land of romance and of stirring hfe, and the modern movement for the enlightenment of its woman- kind has still the same elements, and is full of the promise of the future. VII SIDELIGHTS ON SOME NATIVE STATES "Vulgarity is unknown in India. This alone is education and of the highest order. Reading and writing are minor to it." From the Indian Ladies' Magazine. TO the student of Indian problems the Native States present in many cases a survival of former conditions which elsewhere have been swept away under the more direct influence of British rule ; in others freedom from the criticism to which an alien rule is liable has allowed advanced rulers to experiment on the most modern lines. The term '* Native State '* is itself capable of very diverse interpretation.^^ There are in all about seven hundred districts so called, with a total population of over 62 million, and varying in size from the great southern State of Hyderabad, with an area of over 82,000 square miles, to parcels of land about the size of an average country estate in England. The British Government takes direct cognizance of some hundred of these in varying degrees of relationship. Some States are entirely responsible ^° Administrative Problems of British India, book ii., chap. i. J. Chailley. 146 Sidelights on Some Native States 147 for their own internal government with a British Resident tactfully fulfilling his difficult office ; in others the control is more direct, under an officer appointed as administrator by the Government till such time as the State finances or internal order may justify once more the revival of relative inde- pendence under an heir of the dynastic family. There is thus every variety of ruler, from the rajah who holds the time-honoured doctrine of " L'etat c'est moi," and whose State recalls the prejudices, barbarities, and general practices of the Europe of the Middle Ages, to the virtuous chiefs who strive to rule on modern principles of order and justice for the welfare of their people. There are rajahs whose womenfolk are the strictest of parda-nashin and others whose daughters may disport themselves in English society at home to their hearts' content, a curious bye- product being the rani who is parda-nashin in her own State but not when she comes out into the world abroad. It is natural that only amongst the more pro- gressive States is any opportunity found of study- ing the question of female education ; in others even the first beginnings are totally absent. The present chapter is in no sense a complete survey, and only offers a few notes which may indicate the general trend. It is difficult in many cases to obtain exact information, as the British Government are wisely chary of giving too much. The official reports, as M. Chailley puts it, wrap up blame in velvet and distribute praise with a 148 Education of Women of India liberal hand, and a letter to a native diwan ^^ will not always procure an educational report with the same promptitude as it would in British territory. There is also the never-to-be-forgotten fact that " All the world's a stage," and at times the temptation to play a part, to produce a sem- blance of things which speak of progress and yet lack reality, is too strong for the Oriental mind. Thus a school housed in a magnificent building with four hundred girls on its roll may prove to have less than two hundred in daily attendance, though each child is in receipt of a monthly " stipend " from the State for the honour of her attendance ; and " God save the Queen " may be cheerily sung in honour of the beloved Empress of whose death all India has not yet heard ! Some of the smaller Native States are closely linked educationally with the adjacent British province ; the Inspectors visit them, and their statistics are included in the Provincial Report. Thus the Quinquennial Survey includes over 150,000 square miles of Native State territory, chiefly in the Bombay Presidency. In others, with which the Government of India maintains direct political relations, the educational poHcy depends entirely on the native ruler, and reflects his personality and enthusiasm. A very striking instance of this is Baroda, a small state with a population of about two million. A policy of stringent reform was inaugurated there about " Chief minister. Sidelights on Some Native States 149 1875, during the minority of the present Gaekwar, and has had its effect on the position of women. Two acts, legalizing the re-marriage of widows and raising the marriage age to twelve, have marked the tide of progress during the last decade. The educational movement dates from 1871, and there is now a complete system for boys from free Primary education to scholarships in Japanese Universities. The scheme for girls is less am- bitious, but there are Primary schools in every village, teaching the ordinary curriculum up to Standard IV., a fair proportion of Secondary schools in which cooking is also taught by the teacher or by a Brahman cook, and a central High school in the capital with a Training college attached. Any girl of promise can secure a scholarship to it after the fourth or fifth Standard, and after a five years' course is certain of employ- ment. The curriculum is very thorough, including astronomy, botany, mathematics, and the ordinary Normal course. There are at present about fifty students in the college, and a steadily increasing stream of applicants. My informant stated that there was no prejudice here against widows as teachers, and that even Brahman widows who were poorly off had entered the profession. The statistics are of special interest as showing the effect of compulsory education within a limited area. This experiment was introduced, for the first time in Indian history, in one district of Baroda in 1893, and was extended to the whole province in 1904. The age for girls is seven to ten. 1 50 Education of Women of India for boys from seven to twelve. The numbers in the girls* case rose from 9 % of school age at school in 1905 to 47% in 19 10 — an almost incredible rise in comparison with the slow movement in other parts of India. There is naturally a good deal to be said as to the wisdom of a policy which is so far in advance of the desire of the people. Some are said to be flying from Baroda into the adjacent British territory to escape what appears to them a meaningless tyranny .^ 2 jj^g people are very poor and heavily taxed ; they want the children to work, or to take charge of the other children while the women work in the fields. The richer parents, again, object to the girls leaving the house, as parda is fairly strict. There are pathetic tales of schoolmistresses who, in addition to their scholastic duties, must start an hour and a half before the appointed time to compel un- willing feet into the path of knowledge, and stories of children who manage to arrive half an hour before the closing time in order to kindly swell the statistics of attendance. Then there is the usual prejudice against the unpractical nature of the curriculum, and its slavish similarity to the boys' course. But after all discounting of stat- istics and allowance for the undercurrent of revolt, there is evidently a good deal of honest educational work being done in Baroda, with some measure of success. There is even some talk of creating a Central Women's Department, where special needs might receive full consideration. ^2 Public Instruction Report, Bombay, 1910, p. 24. Sidelights on Some Native States 151 One Inspectress, a Parsi lady, is at present working there, and assistants are shortly to be appointed. In the great Mohammedan State of Hyderabad progress is naturally slower. Though the greater proportion of the inhabitants are Hindus, the Moslem influence, proceeding from the Nizam's Court, is the predominating one. The Wesley an and American Baptist missions began pioneer work in the Primary education of girls about 1880, and have steadily developed it by tactful measures to higher stages. Effort on the part of the Government has been made only in recent years, and is not yet a very important factor, though the Nizam's parda school at the capital is the beginning of better things. In 1905 there were only 4467 girls under instruction out of a population of over eleven million ! ^^ Mysore also owes its first movement towards female education to missionary influence. In 1840 the first mission school for girls was opened in Bangalore, and in 1868 the first Government school. As in other parts of India, girls are to be found in the hohli or local boys' school, but the usual difficulties prevent this method from being really effective. A great impulse was given to the whole enterprise not only in Mysore but in all southern India by the establishment, in 1881, of the Maharani's Girls' School in the capital. The Maharani has also taken a close personal interest in its progress. This school, raised to the '^ Imperial Gazetteer of India. 152 Education of Women of India dignity of a college, ranks as a first-class institu- tion ; its Head is a student from Newnham College, and the rest of the staff has proportional qualifications. The education is entirely free, but entrance at first was limited only to high-caste families, and its extension now to Christians and respectable girls of low caste is under various restrictions. As a result the college has done much to break the barrier which exists between high-caste women and education. The cur- riculum includes the Kindergarten stage and a department of domestic science. There are at present some 400 pupils, including many Brahman widows, who are being trained as teachers, and also some former pupils who return to complete their course, bringing their children with them. Besides this splendid effort in the capital, the Government has encouraged the formation of local committees for the development of education in the different districts. By 1904 there were 243 girls' schools and colleges, with a creditable percentage of four girls in the hundred at school. The London Missionary Society and others have extensive work here, and contribute considerably towards these statistics. Probably the most striking feature in the educational situation in Mysore is the introduction, in 1908, of definite religious teaching in the Government schools. This subject is more fully treated in a subsequent chapter. Next to Baroda, the southern State of Travan- core has the highest percentage of girls at school, Sidelights on Some Native States 153 namely, 23.3%. This is largely due to the fact that 31% of the population are Christians, and to the thorough work of the London Missionary Society; but the present Maharaj stands for educational reform, and an official effort is also made for the advancement of women. A some- what similar impetus to that lent by the Maharani's College was given to the education of girls in Travancore by the establishment there of the Maharajah's College for girls under a fully qualified English Head-mistress, who has since been succeeded by an Indian lady. These two Indian institutions stand out beyond all others as examples of progressive native policy on wise lines. The great group of Rajput States in the heart of which the British Government holds under its direct control the key lands of Ajmer-Merwara, have a history of romance and chivalry which might well have augured a leading place for their women in the modern movement, and yet it is just this very chivalry which shields them from its touch. The Rajput princesses of the ancient days were no pale, languishing maidens. They sallied forth armed and on horseback to lead a forlorn hope, or closed the gates of the castle against a lord who returned without the spoil of victory from the field. When the doom of their tribe was at hand and the Moslem hosts surged round the sacred city of Chitore, they passed in solemn procession to one common nuptial fire, while their|_lords perished in the wild holocaust 154 Education of Women of India of johdr}^ What wonder that, where the women were of this temper, their husbands and sons were able to defy all odds ! ^^ Children of the sun and of the moon with all the glory of a mythic ancestry, the Rajputs have held apart from the seeming decadence of literary culture. True, there is the story of Jey Singh of the one hundred and nine virtues, whose mathematical calcula- tions in the seventeenth century rank with those of European scholars, but he stands alone and reveals by contrast the prevalent conditions. The character of the rulers has thus in modern times influenced educational progress amongst their people, though only a very small percentage of these are actually of Rajput descent. Alwar was the first State to move in 1842, and three years later Jaipur. It was not till some twenty years after that any official movement was made on behalf of women. The first girls' school was opened at Bharatpur in 1866,^^ but the progress has been very slow with little headway. In 1901 only two women out of every thousand could read. In 1905 there were, over the whole group of States, only fifty-three girls' schools, including the mission schools, and some of these were in a very poor state of efficiency. In Jaipur, which may be taken 1* The great " war-sacrifice of honourable death " practised by the Rajputs. When resistance was un- avaiUng, they chose death in battle rather than surrender. ^5 From The Land of the Princes, Gabrielle Festing. ^^ Imperial Gazetteer. Sidelights on Some Native States 155 as the most advanced State educationally, the Government supports some eleven schools for girls. The principal one of these in the capital is supplied with splendid quarters. What money can do apart from personality has been done. The school, however, suffers most acutely from the prevailing difficulty of an inefficient staff. Some of the assistant teachers themselves are barely beyond the stage of being able to read and write, and thus the school as a whole lacks the attraction which is necessary to popularize education in a community where the hereditary tendency is against it. The marvel, however, is not that the school is not thoroughly modern, but that it is there at all ; and if we remember the rapid strides which have been made in other parts of India from even smaller beginnings, it augurs well for the future of Jaipur. Mission- work in Native States depends greatly on the personal relations which the pioneers succeed in establishing with their rulers, and the United Free Church Mission has, since its first entrance in 1866 to the Native State of Rajputana, been exceedingly tactful in this matter. Its educational work for boys has been well developed and has helped very consider- ably in the general advance ; on the women's side a great deal of careful pioneer work has been done by means of small schools and zenana visiting. There are at present sixteen of such schools with a total register of four hundred in six different States, also in Jaipur and elsewhere there is a considerable number of women under regular 156 Education of Women of India instruction in the zenanas. The efficiency of the schools varies according as they are more or less accessible to the regular visitation of an English lady worker. The work is entirely Primary as the parda custom is strict, and the children are withdrawn at about eight years of age. The British District of Ajmer-Merwara does not, strictly speaking, fall within the purview of this chapter, but as it is essentially the key to all Rajasthan, its conditions have a reflex influence on the States, and the relation of the educational problems is a very vital one. The Government, while upholding the necessity of women's educa- tion, is greatly hampered in its efforts by financial considerations. The office of Inspectress, held since 1871 by a European lady educated in India, lapsed in 1892, and since then there has been no systematic effort to train teachers or effectually to supervise and co-ordinate the Government and independent schools. There are in all seven schools directly maintained by the Govern- ment, all of primitive type, quartered in rooms and courtyards rented in the bazaar, and of the 140 pupils only twelve are in the second Standard. The Government Report frankly acknowledges the inefficiency of these schools and urges the re-appointment of an Inspectress. The energies of the United Free Church Mission have been largely devoted in the past decade to the education of their famine orphans and the girls of the Christian community. Their Girls* Boarding-School in Nasirabad is a well-equipped Xi Sidelights on Some Native States 157 institution, and Normal work is under considera- tion. The tradition of Primary schools for non- Christians, since the first was founded in 1862, and of systematic zenana teaching, has been well maintained, and there are now about thirteen such with over four hundred pupils. There is, however, no really first-class education provided for the women of the non-Christian community, nor any attempt to meet the educational need of the changed times. The new spontaneous element is to be seen in the educational scheme of the Arya Samaj, which has apparently a more religious aspect here than in other provinces. They have two schools for girls in Ajmer : one an orphanage with twenty-eight pupils under an honorary mistress ; another, the Arya Putri Pathshala, is an excellent vernacular Primary school with some provision for further instruction. The Head mistress is a fully trained teacher brought from another province, and the school throughout showed evidence of order and system. There are over sixty girls on the roll, and it seemed in every way the most efficient institution for non-Christians in the district. The most striking testimony to the new spirit and the new desire for progress was found in a private school conducted in her own house by the widow of a former leader of the Arya community. It is true that in Ajmer the saying is still current that there cannot be two pens in one house, meaning thereby that to educate a girl is either to compass her own death or that of her future husband ; but here some thirty-five girls, 158 Education of Women of India drawn not entirely from the Arya Samaj but also from the leading orthodox castes, came daily at their own expense to get such learning as might help to fit them for life in its newer aspects. The Head-mistress, who had studied with her former husband, was a highly cultured Indian lady with a beautiful and attractive grace of manner, full of enthusiasm for her work, but almost pathetically conscious of the failure of her school to attain the ideals she had set before her. " I know geography ought to be taught but I cannot procure a teacher." ** I have never even had an oppor- tunity of learning English." " All my teachers teach for nothing ; it is voluntary work, and education should not be otherwise." The school to a large extent reflected the personality of the Head. The attendance nearly equalled the number on the roll ; far from reward being given, any children who did not come were fined for absence ; several older girls were there, including some who were married, and whose husbands were away from home also studying. The school is strictly par da, for the Arya community itself is only gradually advancing to freedom in this respect, and in any case the older pupils from the orthodox families would necessitate it. The education given is a thorough grounding in the Hindi and Urdu vernacular, with a limited amount of Sanskrit and careful instruction in needlework. The whole situation in Ajmer, taken as an index to the future development of the States of Sidelights on Some Native States 159 Rajasthan, points to the need for the estabhsh- ment there of a first-class girls' school ^vith an English Head-mistress to set the standard for the whole district, and this is strongly advocated in the Government Report, without, however, any prospect of immediate action. The class from which its pupils would be drawn would be at first a limited one, but its presence would to a certain extent increase the demand which is slowly but surely coming from men who realize the new need, and who know an efi&cient school when they see it. This very inadequate smrvey of the conditions in some of the leading Native States \vill have served its purpose if the reader has gathered from it that the modem movement for the education of women is felt throughout the whole of our vast Indian Empire, varjdng in degree, but commend- ing itself to the best Indian thought of every phase. It is not now a question of sporadic missionary efiort or of a pohcy enforced by Government, but of a stream which is influencing the life of the people with an ever increasing momentum. VIll BOMBAY " The true reformer has not to write on a clean slate. His work is more often to complete the half-written sentence." — Ranade. THE problem of women's education in the Bombay Presidency is to a certain extent that of the whole of India in miniature. Nothing is better calculated to impress the mind with the variety of races and social conditions, the conflicting ideals and different stages of progress throughout the whole Indian Empire, than a study of these in a smaller area at close quarters. Under the rule of the Governor are some 20,000,000 souls,i^ 75 % Hindus, 20 % Moslem, I % Jains, rather over i % Christians, and some 81,000 Parsis, whose social influence is out of all proportion to their numerical importance ; a territory of 123,000 square miles, embracing the sun-beaten deserts of Sind, the fertile plains of Gujerat, the Deccan districts ever subject to the spectre of famine, the Carnatic regions with their glorious forests, and the low-lying tract below the 17 Statistical Abstract of British India, 191 1. Ap- proximate figures. 160 Bombay 1 6 1 Ghats with its well-watered, broad reaches of alluvial soil — climates offering almost every variety of Indian possibilities except perhaps that of extreme cold. About a third of this territory belongs to Native States with a varying relation to the Presidency Government, and politically linked, though not strictly speaking attached, is the important State of Baroda with its 2,000,000 inhabitants. Linguistically considered, the pro- vince has four main languages, Marathi, Gujerati, Kanarese, and Hindi, with numerous linked dialects, and English will by no means take you everywhere, as some Anglophiles fondly imagine. Like all the rest of India it is a land of villages, only 19% of the people living in towns of more than 5000 inhabitants ; a land of child- marriage, only 50% of the girl children under ten being unmarried, and a land therefore of young widows. These three facts involve a great diffi- culty in the distribution of schools, a brief cur- riculum, and a dearth of teachers. From a historical point of view the province presents stratum upon stratum ; early records point to an Aryan settlement on the Indus amongst a people of Dravidian stock ; Persian, Bactrian, and White Hun invasions have left their mark, but always the prevailing element is the Hindu — absorbing and Hinduizing the successive streams. The peaceful dominance of Asoka^ is felt, and the Buddhist establishments whose records are left Asoka, ruler of India, B.C. 272-231. He is known as the Constantine of Buddhism. 1 62 Education of Women of India in the rock caves and temples must have been numerous and far-reaching. There are tales of chiefs who honoured alike Siva, Buddha, and Jaina In the seventh century a.d. trade brought the Parsis, a people of a book and a faith which still preserves them as a unity. In the eighth century came the first wave of the Moslem tide which was destined in later centuries to overrun the Deccan. In the fifteenth century came the Portuguese in search of " spices and Christians " ; there are caves to-day where the ruins of Catholic altars lie side by side with Buddhist semi-reliefs, mingled with the ever- present Hindu forms and figures. The romance of the province, however, lies in the history of the Mahrattas, whose forts dominate the frowning eminences of the Ghats, memorials of the gradual consolidation of the scattered Hindu chieftains, of prolonged struggle with Delhi, of internal strife, of defeat, of victory, until finally a new power from the West came to impose the dominance of the Pax Britannica upon the conflicting forces. The Presidency assumed something like its present form between 1803 and 1827, ^^d the history of Western education may be said to begin with Mountstuart Elphinstone (1819-1827), in whose Governorship the first schools were opened. The same factors which we found to be present elsewhere, working in favour of female education or against it, are felt in the Bombay Presidency. In some places, especially in the country districts, Bombay 1 6^ there is strong opposition to the estabHshment of any kind of schools at all, and most of all to girls' schools. To the zemindar or villager the estab- lishment of a school merely means that educational and revenue officers will come round worrying him to support it. The children are wanted for work in the fields, and. where the margin of sub- sistence is so small it is no wonder that every mite of labour is needed. In sixty villages out of every hundred there is no school at all. The women are conservative ; they have not been educated themselves : why should their daughters be educated ? Above all it is not dustur (custom), and with that the would-be recruiting agency strikes against a solid argument which it will take decades to remove. But to set against this, there is the fact that, speaking broadly, it is not a par da country. Except for the Moslems, who are in considerable minority, and a small proportion of the Hindus influenced by tradition and contact with Mohammedanism, especially in the district of Sind, the women of both high and low caste have a certain degree of freedom, and their general position is greatly influenced by the presence of the Parsi ladies, who mingle in society very much as do their sisters of the West. To see an Indian lady walking on the streets of Bombay is no strange sight, as it still is in Calcutta, in spite of the half-shy efforts of Christian and Brahma Samaj women. The indigenous Indian feeling in favour of education is stronger than in the district round Calcutta, and there is more of 1 64 Education of Women of India the orthodox element in it. Poona, the centre of the Deccan Brahmans and of cultured Hinduism, stands for a certain well-defined attitude towards education in which women share. The Prabhu Brahmans especially are noted for the many cultured women in their ranks ; they do not marry young, and as a rule afford almost equal opportunity to boys and girls. The Prarthana Samaj,^ an unorthodox meeting- ground for the *' multitudes in the valley of decision," throws its emphasis on women's education, and the general impression given is that, while all educated India has talked about this crucial problem, here much honest effort has been made to solve it. It is a very pure form of patriotism which leads a Hindu student to give up two hours daily of his college time to voluntary teaching in a girls' High school, yet this is by no means rare in Bombay. The Parsi element and influence has also been a very potent one. The leading Parsi men in the early days spared neither money nor personal trouble, with the result that to-day out of 1465 girls receiving higher education, 1054 are drawn from the Parsi community, and their contribution to the supply of teachers is a very important one. But this leads us to a detailed study of the early history of the movement, and its present condi- tions in relation to the different communities. 3 A society similar to the Brahma Samaj, but less organized and not so strong numerically. C/. New Ideas in India. Morrison. Bombay 1 65 Owing to the influences described, it is not sur- prising that, at the last Quinquennial Survey, Bombay stood second only to Burma in its per- centage of girls at school, and a glance at the gradually increasing number shows the steady upward progress. 1 88 1 — 1.2 per cent, of girls of school age at school. 1896—3.75 „ 1901— 4.74 1907—5-9 1910— 7.2 In earlier days it is impossible to get separate figures. Where girls shared in education it was incidentally in the boys' schools, or separately in mission schools, and they owed nothing to any special effort on their behalf ; even to day 21 % of the girls at school are studying in boys' schools. The initial impulse came from Mrs Margaret Wilson and other workers of the Scottish Mission, who from 1824 onwards gradually gathered together a few girls for instruction. The first step taken by Indians was due to the Students' Literary and Scientific Society connected with the Elphinstone College in Bombay, when five leading Indian members volunteered in 1849 ^o open schools for girls in their own houses. One of these was Mr Dadabhai Nauraji, India's " Grand Old Man," who may be regarded as the pioneer of women's education in the Presidency, if not in all India, and who still, in his eighty- sixth year, advocates their cause by his pen. A description of the celebrations in honour of his 1 66 Education of Women of India birthday organized recently by the " Gujerati Stri Mandal," a women's society founded in 1909 to further the educational and social progress of women, may give some idea of the distance which has been traversed since these early days. Some thousand women in their graceful Indian dresses, diaphanous draperies and brilliant jewels, gathered together in a hall which they themselves had garlanded and cross-garlanded with sweet-scented wreaths in his honour, while on the platform the Rani of Gondal presided, surrounded by all the leading Indian women in Bombay who were interested, either as organizers or teachers, in women's education. A short, terse speech was made by Miss Cursetji, whose main interest and energy for the last twenty-five years have been devoted to the Alexandra Girls' High School, founded by her father in 1863 ; another by the Hindu Head-mistress of the High School under the auspices of the Scientific and Literary Society ; another by a young Parsi B.A., Head mistress of the first Hindu Girls' High School ; another, in the general interests of education, by a Saraswat Brahman lady, whose husband is Prime Minister in an adjacent Native State — and the one European member of the audience realized that India has initiative and purpose of her own, and women of whom she may well be proud. The progress in the different communities and the share which is borne by the Government and private efforts respectively can best be seen by the accompanying tables. Private effort divides Bombay 167 itself naturally, as elsewhere, into the work of Christian missions and of the Indian community, but a further sub-division is necessary in the latter in consequence of the special position of the Parsis. Of the Hindu effort first : — the Scientific and Literary Society, after its initial private efforts, proceeded with a definite educational policy in the founding of schools, and, though at present only one school in Bombay is directly under its auspices, its influence in combating prejudice is considerable. This school is exceedingly popular, as the girls are passed quickly into the higher stages, thus earning a certain matrimonial pres- tige, though it is unfortunately true that a girl from the Matriculation class on transference to a mission school had to be placed three classes lower to find her proper level. In consequence of the amateur staff of voluntary teachers who supply the upper forms, this school does not rank as one of the eleven High schools. This feature is interesting, as it shows the earnestness of purpose in the members of the Society, but from an educational point of view the system does not seem very effective. As a whole the school presents no specially Indian features, except that French is excluded and Sanskrit is compulsory as a Matriculation subject. Rehgion is taught by a special teacher, and there are daily prayers. One Hindu school in Poona ranks as a genuine High school, and one other in Bombay hopes shortly to be classed as such. This Chanda-Ramji School owes its foundation to a legacy left for the build- 1 68 Education of Women of India H !z: g ■a 4) H rs N -^ • a> (S «>. % '5 M M >< ID S S 5 & (S "d o\ o . l>. »o M -o ^ . lO O "■< N CO z ^ V rt W ' N . 0^ M N N 2 ^ > .-H H 1 I bo ^ na C3 (U cj tb 3W> .S i K ^ ^ H Bombay 169 tn u 00 U ^ C< 0^ N^ (2 ro M >o . >o N M to s !>. M '>!^ N u-> ^ M in d M M S M C4 M -^ M w N Tf Tt- c rt t>^ t^ t-. rt r< t^ C^ £ CO M vO_ J3 «o uS CQ M M ai >J »o VO M CO 10 10 10 00 a^ 'il qj M t^ ^^ ci »-? Tf u iS c T^ vO N 00 .2 CO c^ M ^ ct vO 'd;- M ki 3 m" c< H • • • • CO u bo CA) , ^ , _5i *S a a >, H t s ^ d xi _'3 -a bjo "gJ £ fe ffi f^ o 170 Education of Women of India ing of a huge gilded idol. The idol was indeed built, but the times have advanced, and only some 10% of the funds were thus utilized. The school is excellently staffed with fourteen mistresses, four of whom are graduates, and with additional pandits for Sanskrit and mathematics for some two hundred girls ; there is a splendid hall for drill and games, a well-stocked science museum, and practically every modern apparatus. Religion is taught from a book of Hindu Moral Maxims by a special teacher. The Gujerati Stri Mandal, mentioned above, has its own functions in endeavouring to secure the attendance at its afternoon classes of young married girls and others from the ^ar^^-keeping sections. Educa- tionally, their influence is probably important rather in the direction of making the next genera- tion accessible to proper education than in much actual attainment on the part of the present pupils. They also organize regular lectures on such subjects as " The Aim of Life," " The Ad- vantages of a Spiritual Temperament," and " The Duties of Motherhood," from which may be seen the close connexion in the mind of the Indian woman between religion and education. The Prarthana Samaj , though they have a weekly women's meeting for the discussion of ethical subjects, and a " Sunday School," do not organize any separate secular education, and their girls are to be found wherever the best education seems obtainable. In Hyderabad there are five large girls' Primary schools, managed by the Hindu Bombay 171 Reform Association, which the Government Report notes as doing useful work. It will thus be seen that the actual Hindu contribution to organized education is not an extensive one, nor has it, as in Bengal, any special character- istic ; but it should be borne in mind that the Hindus take good advantage of the mission and Government schools, and are even found in some of the Parsi High schools. Though their per- centage of girls in the High school stage is small in comparison with their overwhelming majority in the community, it is probably true that every orthodox girl venturing to continue her school career beyond the Primary classes, does so in spite of the opposition, if not of her own immediate family, at least of her grandmother and cousins. The Mohammedan factor is numerically a small one ; the girls belonging to families of the better class are educated at home or in one of the mission " Eng- lish teaching " ^ schools, and it is interesting to note one Mohammedan lady of good social position guiding a school for poor Moslem girls in her own house. Two Mohammedan schools are also on the Government list of Primary schools, but the pupils are mostly in the lower Primary stage. The Parsi contribution is, as has already been indicated, a very considerable one, and in its extent, thoroughness, and modern character, it is 7 " English- teaching " schools form a special category in the Bombay Presidency. There is no limitation to the number of Indian pupils, and they are not bound by the Anglo- Vernacular Code. Cf. p. 179. 172 Education of Women of India quite what one might have expected of the " French of the East." A few notes on their general position are needed to show their attitude towards education. The Parsis are one of the most adaptable races of the world, and in Bombay, where 46,000 of them reside, they have been the leaders in women's education. Lady Frere speaks of a time in her remembrance when not a single Parsi lady could speak English, whereas to-day it is almost as much a common tongue among the wealthy families as Gujerati, which they adopted on their original immigration to India. In 1842 Lady Arthur opened Government House for the first time to Indian ladies, and the Parsis were naturally the first to respond. To-day all the larger social func- tions in Bombay are attended by Indian ladies, the large majority of whom are Parsi. ^ They are to be seen daily at the Princess Mary Gymkhana, a ladies' club, playing Badminton and croquet, and discuss- ing matters of interest with their friends, some wear- ing the orthodox sari and sacred shirt symbolic of their ancient faith, others in modem European dress. Socially they have been much affected by the hedonism of the West. Religiously their evolution has been rather negative than positive. Zoroastrianism as a cult had survived only in curi- ous forms and ceremonies, and the sacred language of its books was unknown even to the priests ; the educated Parsi inclined to agnosticism or theosophy while retaining his ceremonial adherence to a religion 8 Hindu ladies attended first about 1863 in response to special efforts made on their behalf by Lady Frere. Bombay 173 which was the binding tie of his community. Under the influence of the modem Renaissance and general revival of the ethnic faiths, the sacred books have been translated ; brief extracts published in dainty vellum volumes, together with the Lord's Prayer and Christian hymns (with significant omissions), are used as manuals of devotion. When the Parsi girls* schools were first started no religious instruction was given, but now a special Zoroastrian committee exists for preparing literature and sending an instructor to each. Quick to perceive the general bearing of British rule and modern education on their position as a wealthy minority in an alien land, the Parsi leaders adopted, in 1857, a definite educational policy for their women. They sepa- rated from the Scientific and Literary Society and formed one of their own, the Parsi School Associa- tion, to which they gave most liberally both in money and personal service. Other leading Parsis founded special schools, and it is difficult when looking down the Government list to know which to select for description. Two perhaps may be taken as typical, one of the three Association schools and the Alexandra Native Girls' High School. The former owes its special character- istics to the Honorary Secretary of the Associa- tion, Khan Bahadur Chichgar, who visited the best schools in Europe in order to study the Herbartian principles of education in actual practice. He was the first to introduce this method in the Bombay Presidency, and has done 174 Education of Women of India so without imitation of detail, and with the most wonderful adaptation to the environment of Parsi children. The school is kept continually supplied with the latest appliances and the newest books, and Mr Chichgar has for many years visited the school on Saturday afternoons to train the teachers in the use of them. The result is that, though the teachers may hold no Normal certificates, the school is alert and keen, from the youngest baby rejoicing in plaiting its neighbour's hair, to the girls of the fifth form, whose curriculum is varied by ambulance work, cooking, and dress- cutting. On the occasion of the writer's visit every child had some practical handwork of its own to exhibit ; the action songs were definitely related to the subsequent lesson on weights and measures, while the mud modelling of the Bombay water-system done by one of the higher forms showed a thorough sense of neatness and propor- tion, with an intelligent knowledge of the principle involved. The shadow of an examination never falls upon this school ; it aims at providing a thorough training for life for middle-class Parsi girls, and its success in doing so in entirely due to the unsparing devotion and labour given to it by its founder — a man engaged in ordinary business. The Alexandra Native Girls' High School dates from the early days of pioneer work and of un- sympathetic criticism. Some 20 pupils were registered for its first opening in 1863, and to-day there are about 120, practically as many as the staff of the institution is meant to deal with. Its Bombay 1 75 aim is to give Parsi girls of respectable families the " blessings of an English education upon sound moral principles," and though the blessing may be a doubtful one, the school is certainly thoroughly English in every way. Since 1890, Matriculation candidates have been sent up with a good record of success. There is no higher teaching of the vernaculars, and French is taken as the alternative Matriculation subject. The Head- mistress is from England and is fully qualified, but the rest of the staff are Parsis, only one of whom had Normal qualifications. The school is managed by a committee of leading Parsis, and though it is under Government inspection it receives no grant, as the income from fees and the endowment is sufficient. This school may be taken as fairly tj^ical of a first-class Parsi High school. Moreover, education has advanced so far in the community that private enterprise is no longer an impossiblity, and can even as in the case of the Girt on High school, be made financially successful without the Government grant. The dividing line between business and philanthropy may at times be difficult to draw, but the spirit is much to be commended which keeps a school of this type alive and efficient, when in some cases the nett profit to the proprietress is barely a living wage. Taken as a whole, the Parsis have provided most thoroughly for the education of their girls, both rich and poor. Of the eleven High schools imder private management in the Presidency, seven are Parsi ; of the Middle 1 76 Education of Women of India schools four, and of the Primary schools, whether separate or forming departments of the High schools, fifteen. Of this provision ample advan- tage is taken, and the proportion of daily attend- ance to the numbers on the roll is amazing in comparison with Upper India. Wherein, then, does the system fail, or is it perfect ? Criticism seems ungracious where so much energy and thought have been expended, but in the main there are two things which strike a visitor — the lack in the teachers of a sense of the dignity and responsibility of their profession, with the consequent effect of such a lack on the outlook of their pupils, and the de- orientalizing curriculum. These problems are, however, common to the whole educational situation, and one could hardly expect even the Parsi community to be quite immune. It is difficult to turn from the indigenous Indian element, which has naturally something in it very spectacular and attractive to the Western visitor, to the quiet record of the immense and steady contribution of Christian missions to education in the Bombay Presidency, and to realize that the main inspiration of the former came from the gradual and unconscious infiltration of the Christian ideal of womanhood. For more than twenty years the missionaries were the sole pioneers in the face of much opposition. The pupils were gained at first through the influence of Hindu and Parsi gentlemen interested in the Scottish mission. Progress was naturally slow, Bombay 177 there was a lack of continuity in the British workers, and continuity is essential in a country where personality counts for so much ; but by 1827 three hundred girls, some of good caste, were attending school in the Konkan district, where the Scottish pioneers first started. After the transference of the mission Mrs Wilson had managed, by 1830, to organize six little schools in Bombay with 120 pupils, the story of the winning of each individual girl being almost a romance in itself. For some time the children were given weekly paisa ^ as a reward, and would demand their wage like weary labourers, a practice still extant in some of the Native States, and a great contrast to the sum of 407 rupees now received as fees in one of the mission institutions which traces its origin to these very schools. The Parsis in one street asked the mission to instruct all the children therein, including sixteen girls. The Beni Israel also proved an accessible community, and thus gradually the number of girls increased. The second stage of missionary education was reached when boarding-schools were created for Indian Christian girls who could be retained for a reasonable time, and some of whom could be utilized as teachers. About 1885 the first syste- matic attempt at Normal training is noticed, a line of work which is perhaps at present the most important missionary contribution to the whole scheme, and capable of further development. Mission schools, as might be expected, form an ^ Farthings. M 17S Education of Women of India overwhelming majority in the list of aided schools. Of the II High schools they have 2, of the 34 Middle schools 14, and of the 276 Primary schools, practically all except those indicated above and a few others. Certain societies educate, as yet, mainly the children of their own communities ; others, such as the American Board for Foreign Missions, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the Irish Presbyterian Mission, have a con- siderable number of schools, both in the cities and in the villages, for non-Christian children. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission makes work of this kind a special feature.^o The small pro- portion of High schools is partly accounted for by the fact that the Victoria High School at Poona, founded by Mrs Sorabji, and still carried on most effectively by her daughter as a Christian school, is classed as a boys' school. It is attended by the children of many of the leading Parsi families, and is a curious example of successful co-education up to an advanced stage. Also both in Bombay and Poona there is a consider- able number of good European schools in connec- tion with Roman Catholic and Episcopal sister- hoods, to which 15% of Indian girls may be admitted on payment of double fees. These places are always eagerly sought. The Girgaum High School, under the auspices of the Z.B.M.M., 10 Detailed information can be obtained in the reports of the various societies. There are 26 Protestant societies in the Presidency, most of whom have educa- tional work for girls. Bombay 1 79 may be taken as typical of a first-class " English- teaching " mission High school. About 150 girls can be seen gathered together at morning prayer, two-thirds of whom are non-Christian (Parsis, Moslems, Beni Israel, and a few Hindus) ; some have come in their motor-cars, others from quite poor homes. The curriculum extends from three Kindergarten classes to the seventh English standard, in which the girls go up for Matriculation. English is used as a medium throughout, which makes the school popular with Indians who desire purely English education, but it is naturally very difficult for the pupils in the early stages, in spite of the Government regulation that the teacher must be able to translate into Marathi. There are four English mistresses and several well-qualified Anglo- Indians. A new department has recently been added for the training of English Kindergarten students for the Froebel examination, but this is not yet sufficiently staffed to ensure good success. Two-thirds of the income are derived from fees and one-third from the Government grant. The Ambroli School of the United Free Church Mission is Hindu throughout, and at present ta]<:es its pupils only as far as the fifth Anglo- Vernacular standard. All the instruction in the lower forms is in Marathi, and it is a stiff battle that Marathi babies have to fight with their letters. There are three scripts to learn — one printed, one cursive, and one abbreviated — and it is no wonder that, with this task to master, Indian parents tend to look on Kindergarten expedients for " time i8o Education of Women of India wasting " as a diversion from the royal road to knowledge. The teachers here, with the exception of one Anglo-Indian for English in the upper forms, are all Indian, and some are non-Christians, but the school is continually visited by a fully trained Scottish lady, who divides her time between this and another school. Fees are paid regularly, and there is a good municipal grant. An interest- ing feature of the American Mission is the stress laid at their orphanage and boarding-school upon independence in character. Each pupil must do two hours' industrial work, and may in addition work longer for payment, which is credited to her account for payment of fees. Thus some of the pupils in the Matriculation class were beyond the usual age, but had . contributed considerably to their own maintenance. The industrial training of this mission is very highly developed, both in Bombay and at Ahmednagar. The Primary schools in the villages have the usual character- istics which we have studied elsewhere, and it has only to be noted that this work is capable of practically unlimited extension. No account of women's education in the Presi- dency would be complete without reference to the work of Pandita Ramabai,^^ which stands outside all mission control, and is the unique contribution of an Indian woman to the future victory of the Christian ideal among her own people. Since the Sharada Sadan (the abode of wisdom) near Poona was started in 1892, thou- 1* Cf. Life of Pandita Ramahai, Helen Dyer. Bombay 1 8 1 sands of Indian widows have been given the opportinuty of a self-supporting, self-respecting life, and a vision of what self-sacrifice may mean. The education given on strictly intellectual lines is naturally not carried to a High stage, but is thorough in type. The Pandit a dreads the Westernization of her girls, and stands for all that is good in simple Indian life. Though mission education bulks so largely in the statistics of voluntary schools, and has been the pioneer, it must be realized that it does not hold the same position in this as in other provinces, nor influence the districts as a whole. A brief glance at the figures of Primary schools (Table, page 1 68) supported by other public bodies, both in British territory and in the Native States, will prove the contrary to those who imagine the mission factor still to be the dominant one. The Government function is here, as in the other provinces, largely a co-ordinating and directing one as regards the girls' schools. The six important Government institutions — two High schools with Primary schools attached, at Poona and at Ahmedabad, and four Training schools — are a direct outcome of the effort to standardize and raise the general tone of education in the Presidency. They are linked by the system of " stipends " to all the Primary schools. The institution at Poona under an Indian lady. Miss Bhore, is excellently housed, and had at the time of my visit 200 girls in the High school, 200 in the vernacular practising school, and about 88 1 82 Education of Women of India Normal students. The Inspectress regrets that there is not a Government High school in Bombay to raise the general standard. Apart from these institutions directly under the Central authority, a great deal has been done with public funds under the Municipalities and Local Boards. It has been impossible to ascertain exactly when these schools under public authority were first started, but the system must have grown up somewhere in the " eighties." At first the girls of the lower castes went, as they still go in many villages, to the boys' schools ; in other places separate schools gradually sprang up wherever there were enlightened Indian members of the Municipalities to welcome the official suggestion. In 1 90 1, the number of girls' Primary schools in Bombay necessitated the appointment of an Indian Inspectress to work under the Munici- pality, and shortly afterwards an English Inspectress was appointed from home to the Indian Educational Service, in order to develop women's education in certain portions of the Presidency. Her time was largely occupied in the inspection and examination of Training colleges and High schools (European and Anglo- Vernacular) and in dealing with questions of general educational policy as " expert adviser " to the Department. Since Miss Ash worth's retirement, no English Inspectress has been appointed in the Indian Educational Service to this Presidency. The value of the municipal and local board schools, if viewed from the numerical Bombay 183 standpoint of increasing the women literates in the district, is unquestioned, but when all allow- ance has been made for exceptions, the real gain to the community when the schools are not well staffed and lack constant supervision is very questionable. Miss Corkery, the present In- spectress, emphasizes the need for constant inspection. "I believe that if the Municipalities employed a trained supervisor to visit each school daily the work would be carried on more methodi- cally. From my twenty-five years' experience of the Hindu female teacher I have come to the conclusion that she has no power of initiative and no administrative capacity. She will work hard and faithfully under supervision, but as soon as that is withdrawn her natural apathy asserts itself." 12 When in addition to her own " natural apathy " the teacher has possibly had no Normal training herself, and suffers from untrained assis- tants, the spirit of the school is apt to flag. Adequate inspection of these schools would un- doubtedly necessitate the appointment of women Deputy-Inspectors. The question of premises is also a very vital one. The Indian child is accus- tomed to be one of a crowd, to eat and sleep, to live and die as one of a crowd ; but, in school, if it is to attain to individuality, it must learn the value of space. Yet in one of the best Bombay municipal schools which takes its brighter pupils up to the Anglo-Vernacular sixth Standard, I found some 300 girls crowded into the space '* Public Instiuction Report, Bombay, 1910, p. 27. 1 84 Education of Women of India really needed for about half that number. Several crowded pens were to be seen round a bit of fiat roof, too wet in the rains and too sunny at other times for drill, one of the pens so crammed with infants that it was almost impos- sible to step from one division to another, infants in different classes within touch of one another, and the whole pervaded with a pungent odour from the fruit market below — surely this is not for the good of the city or of the children. " In Ahmedabad the girls are compelled to sit amid insanitary and evil-smelling surroundings, to study the advantages of pure air." ^^ It would not be difficult to multiply instances. On the other hand some municipal schools are well housed and staffed, and the system must not be condemned when it is capable of improvement. The problem is partly a financial one, and partly once more the question of the supply of teachers and of the future Inspectresses. These children pay a few paisa, in fair proportion to the income of their parents, where- as in many High schools receiving a Government grant the fees might with advantage be raised. ^^ When the situation in the Presidency is viewed as a whole the present need is seen to be not so much to secure more girls by artificial means or to induce more to stay to the higher stage, for there is a steady current in favour of education which is slowly acquiring momentum, but rather to raise the standard of teaching as a whole and 13 Public Instruction Report, Bombay, p. 27. ^^ Ibid., -p. 18. Bombay 185 so to adapt the curriculum that those children who do pass through the schools will, in intel- lectual attainment and character, commend the system and prove a force attractive to others. The problem of the teacher is one that is apparent throughout, alike in Indian, mission, and public authority schools. Taking the Primary teacher first, from what ranks is she usually drawn, and what are the attractions to the profession ? In consequence of the shortness of supply the school- mistress is very often found to be, in fact, an elderly man. This, however, is becoming less frequent. A glance at the table on page 168 shows that the majority of students in training are lower-caste Hindus, and that native Christians form about a fourth of the whole. Of the 1200 women actually engaged now in the teaching profession, I have been unable to obtain a religious classification, but presumably the proportion holds good. In the Ahmedabad Training College 15 of the students are wives or daughters of masters, 19 are wives of students, 15 are wives of other men, 42 are unmarried, and 36 are widows. Taking this college as typical, and assuming the certainty of marriage on the part of the spinsters, it means that in many cases teachers will be available in couples for the village schools. Those whose husbands are not teachers are often difficult to locate, and in many cases may drop out of the work. It is questionable whether the employ- ment of married women in the schools is advis- able : on the one hand, it seems at present the 1 86 Education of Women of India only method to secure the necessary female teachers ; on the other hand, the British Govern- ment is facing even at home the complications which the element of married women's work introduces into the labour market. True, Indian life is different, for the babies come with their mothers to school, and a kind Government supplies the necessary cradles and ayah, but there are undoubted hardships. " The life of the village schoolmistress has not many compensations ; in addition to the long hours at school she has arduous home duties to perform. In many cases she is the sole breadwinner for five or six, none of whom consider it incumbent on them to help her with the household work. Rising at five in the morning or earlier, she has to begin her daily time- table, which extends over seventeen hours. It is marvellous that she is able to work as cheerfully as she does." ^^ The permanent hope is in the widow, and it is encouraging to see a better pro- portion of them here. The spinster is at best available in mission schools for a short period till her marriage. Many trained Christian girls teach for several years, often living under the super- intendence of the missionary, and make most efficient teachers. The supply of such, however, is in no way equal to the demand. It is difficult for one not fully acquainted with the Indian standard of life to judge of the financial aspect, but the impression gathered from the Govern- ment Reports is that increased salaries might ^5 Public Instruction Report, Bombay, p. 29. Bombay 187 attract a better class. There is a proverb that when begging fails it is well to learn to be a teacher. The salaries paid by mission agencies are, as a rule, slightly less than those paid by municipal authorities, just as the salaries of educational missionaries are less than the cor- responding salaries at home. As regards training, a great effort is being made on all sides to secure that all the teachers either take a preliminary course or go up for the qualifying examination : at present the proportion is 44%. Any girl in a municipal school who shows any ability or desire can pass free of charge as a " stipendiary " to the Government Training Colleges with the stipulation that she shall teach thereafter with a salary for at least two years. Five mission schools have Normal divisions attached in which much the same condi- tions prevail. The city of Bombay has, however, no proper provision of opportunity. None of the Government Training Colleges are situated there, and, apart from Mr Chichgar's work, which is limited to the Parsi School Association, there is only a Satur- day morning training class under the auspices of a United Missionary Committee, which is not largely attended. Poona, on the other hand, has two if not three Training institutions, and the circumstances seem to point towards redistribution. A Hindu girl is much more likely to continue her education if it does not entail leaving her relatives. Miss Wilson, Head mistress of the Girgaum High School, in a paper recently read at the Bombay Missionary Conference, emphasized the need of more funds to 1 88 Education of Women of India aid existing institutions, and of fixing a definite rate of salaries and a date after which none but trained teachers would be allowed in any school receiving a Government grant. The latter sugges- tion is possibly somewhat premature, as it might mean the closing of many schools or letting them lapse into the worse state of " unrecognized " institutions. The training of the Secondary teacher is a different problem. The impression current in Great Britain a decade ago that only people who knew nothing, or who could not teach, went to training colleges, seems still to prevail ; moreover, there is no college where women teachers can receive a thorough Secondary training. The Inspectress' reply to an official inquiry as to the possibility of raising the general standard indicates the need of a central Government Training College with a graded system in the aided schools, and special salary grants to all Secondary schools staffed by trained teachers. ^^ There does not, however, seem any prospect of direct action, either on the part of Government or of missionary societies. There are few vacancies in the Government Normal College, and though one woman, a Goanese student, has recently been studying there, the course is not adapted to women students. A few of the teachers go up for the Secondary Examination without a quali- fying course or after attendance at a series of lectures given at the convent in Bombay. There is also a great lack of enthusiasm for the profession ^^ Public Instruction Report, Bombay, p. i6. Bombay 189 as such ; teaching is felt to bemore or less a trade finishing at certain definite hours and limited in its influence to these. A most attractive set of lectures on various educational problems arranged by the Principal of the Government Normal College, had an average attendance of some seven out of possible hundreds. In the case of the women this is perhaps largely due to the enervating influence of the climate and the consequent lassitude after a long day's work, but there is undoubtedly a lack of some unifying and inspiring influence which would have a strong reflex effect on the tone of the schools. The variation of the curriculum has to a certain extent been solved in this Presidency as regards the Primary stage. Bombay was the first province to issue a different set of readers for girls, and those now in use, comprising the study of heroes and heroines from a moral point of view, simple natural phenomena, domestic economy, etc., seem admirably adapted to them. The Code prescribes the usual elements with a study of forms, colours, familiar objects, drill, games, native accounts, and geography beginning in the third form, and Indian history in the fourth. The difliculty begins after the fourth Vernacular stage, corresponding to the first Anglo- Vernacular. After that stage the shadow of the Matriculation begins to fall, and so heavily that in the departmental schedule of studies, the highest Standard (VII. A.-V.) is left blank. Formerly this august portal could be passed very quickly by a well-crammed child. I met one I go Education of Women of India Parsi girl who entered the University at the age of thirteen. The age was raised by the Univer- sities Commission to sixteen. A great contro- versy has recently raged round the place of the vernaculars in the University, and the question of the use of English as a medium of instruction in the school. In regard to the latter, the real educators argued the impossibility of the proper comprehension of a difficult subject through a foreign medium, and the tendency to parrot-like repetition of formula or fact, while the actively " Indian " party, failing to see the real point at issue, held that any other method would weaken the standard of English and handicap the Indian in public service. The Department have sanctioned the use of the vernacular till a later stage, but though some teachers spoke warmly in favour of this method, it has not yet gone beyond experiment. Certainly the teaching of history throughout the Matriculation forms seems exceedingly weak. The Code for the Anglo- Vernacular Standards in relation to the Matricula- tion, and the possible substitution for it of the School Final Examination, a more practical test, is, however, under Government consideration and the defects of the present Code need not be enlarged upon. The variation of the Code for girls is a further question, and the planning of a suitable curriculum is a matter which eminently lends itself to private enterprize. The de- orientalizing influence with Parsi girls is not so dangerous as with other Indian girls, but there is Bombay 191 surely somethiDg wrong when " once a certificate, no more books " is a not infrequent cry. Some schools already vary their curriculum for girls : one mission report speaks of an alternative course better calculated to fit the girls for home life, leaving advanced mathematics, etc., to such only as have the necessary mental ability and physical strength. This effort has met with the approval of the Inspectress and of the more thoughtful parents. Matriculation has, however, in certain circles a distinct matrimonial value, and it is pathetic to see older girls, struggling at a distance of two forms from the desired goal, who would bitterly resent a change to a curriculum more suited to their diverse but not inferior powers. It is here that the opportunity lies for English educators who can help Indian women through an exceedingly difficult transitional period to realize the meaning of modern culture, which, while possessing universal elements, must be evolved by every nation on the lines of its own genius and characteristics. In Bombay and in Poona there are Indian women who think deeply on these things, and who await as yet some con- structive policy in the success of which, though the energy and initiative must be of the West, their share would not be lacking. If this con- structive policy is to start from the Christian standpoint, if the Spirit of Christ is to dominate the new culture, the women of Anglo-Saxon countries must let their rehgion dominate them as never before, and win them out to the larger service. IX UNIVERSITY EDUCATION " Travellers all in the land of the living, In quest of the self it is best to be ; Comrades all in the getting and giving, Prjrthee, tell us, what else are we ? Girls who go hopefully forth to the morrow. In quest of the Women they wish to be, Friends who look down on the fair, flying present. Wistfully, lovingly — this are we." From the "Lai Bagh" Chronicle. A FIRM and steady step on the lower rungs of the ladder is a fair promise of the ultimate ascent, and after a time in- credibly short since the first beginnings of Western education for women in India, the girl graduate is found issuing from the portals of the University. Pioneer in many senses, with a world of ideal- istic possibilities surrounding her career, the Indian woman has proved the quality of her mental capacity ; she has successfully stood the most strenuous of tests, and is prepared to take her part as a leader of her sex and as a contri- butor to the Feminist Movement. The member of Congress sees in her a political factor ; the 192 University Education 193 papers which advocate social reform hail her as a new force which will influence circles far beyond the reach of their propaganda ; the educator trusts that here at last is someone with the brain power and insight to indicate the true lines for the education of Indian women ; the missionary ponders on her possibilities for the Indian Church and the Indian home — ^while India, the real India, the silent multitude of India's women, knows little and cares less. This strange phenomenon seems no longer of their number ; she has stepped away with her new and dazzling robes from the old tradition, from the memories of the twilight and its tales to a new and untried world. And yet in a true sense she is still one with them, one with them in instinct, in thought, in hereditary traits, and fitted, as no Western could ever be, to act as the mediator betwixt the old and the new. The possibilities of the Indian woman graduate have to a certain extent been proved in subsequent careers ; on the other hand, the results of the whole system, as regards the average student, have not entirely justified the hopes built upon it. A brief examination of the actual facts and conditions will prove the best introduction to the problems which underlie them. The five Universities of India — Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad, and Lahore — ^the constitu- tions of which resemble that of the University of London, are open to any woman who can pass the qualifying entrance examination. Their subse- N 193 1 94 Education of Women of India quent studies must be conducted in a college duly recognized by Government and in affiliation with a University. These colleges vary as first and second grade according to the stage, Intermediate or Final B.A., to which they are able to take their students. Of the 175 colleges scattered over India 10 are specially women's colleges, but women are also found studying in mixed colleges under mission boards or Government. Of Government institutions it may practically be said that no sex barrier exists, except where a separate provision is made, as in the case of the Bethune College, Calcutta, and the same is true to a less extent of the mission institutions. Thus women students are found in the Elphinstone College, Bombay, in the Presidency College, Madras, and in the Government College, Rangoon, studying side by side with men under the same conditions. The Wilson College, Bombay, is an important example of the mixed mission college. The ten women's colleges in affiliation with one or other University 1 are as follows : — Number of Students.2 The Bethune College, Calcutta (first grade) . 40 The Diocesan College, Calcutta (first grade) . 32 The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow (first grade) (A.M.M.) . . . .20 The Sarah Tucker College, Palamcottah (second grade) (C.M.S.) ... 6 The Maharani's College, Mysore 1 There are in addition three Training Colleges. * Approximate number only. University Education 195 Number of Students. The Maharajah's College, Trevandrum St Bede's Convent College, Simla (first grade) Auckland House School, Simla (second grade) European Girls' High School, Allahabad (second grade) ..... Woodstock Girls' School, Landour (second grade) ...... Of these, the last four are mainly for Eurasian girls, and fall outside the scope of our inquiry. With the exception of the Bethune and the two institutions in Native States, they are all under Christian management. The word " college " is highly misleading. The English reader pictures an institution parallel to Girton or Somerville, with a full staff of women tutors, supplemented by University lectures, whereas these colleges consist in most cases of small groups of girls, sometimes only one or two, who remain after Matriculation in their old school, studying for the most part under the same mistresses, and with little or no sense of any transition in their career. If no girls are fitted to proceed to the higher stages, the college as such may lapse for the time being ; thus only students in training as teachers are returned in the Panjab report for 1910, in spite of the two " colleges at Simla," whereas the Diocesan School appears officially for the first time in the Bengal report as a college with a most creditable number of students and an efficient staff. The one outstanding exception is the Isabella Thobum College, where the college 196 Education of Women of India department is rigidly separated from the school, and where the collegiate atmosphere and sense of corporate life are dominant. A similar arrange- ment is being made in the new buildings of the Bethune College. Even in these two cases there is the linked High School under the same Principal, sharing in the interest of the staff. A women's college in the English sense of the word does not exist. Passing to the students, the differences of creed, as indicated in the Quinquennial Returns of 1907, are seen in the annexed table. (See page 197.) This proportion is on the whole maintained to-day, with the addition of a few Buddhist girls studying in Rangoon, and an increased propor- tion of Parsis in Bombay. The actual numbers show a remarkably small fluctuation within the last decade, and have not justified the hopes of those who expected a continuation of the four- fold increase of the preceding decade. In 1891 there were 45, in'1901, 177 Arts students. Taking some figures from local returns, we find the following : — ^ Arts Students. 1901. 1906. 1910. Bengal .... United Provinces . Burma .... Bombay Madras .... 55 49 8 30 } 24 38 2 57 ? 47 45 12 76 37 Cf, also Statistical Abstract, B ritish In dia, Tal )le 105. University Education 197 o n vO vO H CO M vo t^ CO VO rt- H w M Tj- rt- N . . . VO ja ; * * '(75 ro M M M VO b CO M Tj- ^ g c II M : : M PO M S6 3 Tj M Tt- . • 10 S ro • * M u-> ffi 2 CO 0^ N • '<*■ rt.'S ri- M ; M t>. ^^ M H c rt •^ 00 '^ M 2 Tf -^ CO CO »o 3 M ;x; • • • • "o s ^ • • • 1 s u^ re 045% U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES mil III CDMEfi33b^T 267331 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY